SpongeBob Creator Stephen Hillenburg Dies at 57, Tributes Pour in

Nickelodeon said the cause of Hillenburg’s death was Lou Gehrig’s disease, also known as ALS.

‘SpongeBob SquarePants’ creator Stephen Hillenburg.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

The creator of “SpongeBob SquarePants”, Stephen Hillenburg, passed away at an age of 57, Nickelodeon announced on Tuesday, 27 November.

In its statement, the cable network said the cause of Hillenburg’s death was Lou Gehrig’s disease, also known as ALS.

SpongeBob, which was conceived, written, produced and directed by Hillenburg, was widely loved by the audiences. It began in 1999 and went on to hundreds of episodes, movies and a Broadway show.

Hillenburg graduated from Humboldt State University in California in 1984 with a degree in natural resource planning with a marine emphasis and went on to teach marine biology at the Orange County Marine Institute.

During his stay at Humboldt, he drew a comic, “The Intertidal Zone,” that was used by him as a teaching tool.

Later, Hillenburg shifted to drawing and did a masters degree in fine arts from the California Institute of the Arts in 1992.

From 1993 to 1996, he worked on the Nickelodeon show "Rocko's Modern Life."

His show “SpongeBob SquarePants” has won four Emmy Awards and has a wide range of merchandise to rival any other pop cultural phenomenon that existed in the 2000s.

The show later shifted to the big screen in 2004, and a musical stage adaptation made its debut on Broadway in 2017.

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(With inputs from AP and BBC)