His daughter, Natasha Sutton Williams, told the UK-based news agency PA Media that her father had been suffering from cancer. He was animating and writing until 6 p.m. on Friday, the day he died, she reportedly said.
Williams was born in Toronto and moved to Britain in the 1950s, according to his biography. He gained international fame after the 1988 film "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" was released. The English animator, along with famous American director Robert Zemeckis, became trailblazers in using live-action integration with cartoon characters.
"I feared if I did this picture it would stop everything [...] It would destroy my commercial business for certain. And then I thought this might not be such a bad idea if it was lucrative enough to allow me to concentrate on just movies in the future", Williams said in 1988, cited by the media outlet Southam News.
Some of his other works are featured in the movies "The Return of the Pink Panther", "The Pink Panther Strikes Again|, and 1967's "Casino Royale".