Surprised that no one else posted this!
Source: Anime News Network
Jim Vowles, a member of the Otakorp Board of Directors for the Otakon convention, has announced on Tuesday that director Satoshi Kon has passed away. Kon was 46. The staff of Otakon confirmed his passing with MADHOUSE studio founder Masao Maruyama. Maruyama had wrote
on his Twitter account on Tuesday night in Japan that an important
director of the studio had suddenly passed away. However, Maruyama
declined to name the director at the time.Kon began working as a manga creator on such works as Kaikisen (1990) before deciding to delve into the anime industry with the art design of Hiroyuki Kitakubo and Katsuhiro Otomo's Roujin Z video in 1991. He then worked on the script and art direction of "Magnetic Rose," a segment of Otomo's 1995 science-fiction anthology film Memories.
Kon first drew worldwide attention with his feature film directorial debut, the psychological suspense film Perfect Blue, in 1997. He would follow that with a string of critically acclaimed anime projects: Millennium Actress (2001), Tokyo Godfathers (2003), Paranoia Agent (2004), and Paprika (2006). At the time of his passing, Kon was working at MADHOUSE on a new feature film called Yume-Miru Kikai.
Damn... You won't be forgotten, Mr. Kon. RIP 
I've only recently watched Paprika for the first time, and watched Perfect Blue years ago, both are incredible movies that show how masterfully he directed. I've been planning on persuing his movies for a while, it's a great shame there won't be any more.
