Writer and producer of popular cartoon The Simpsons, Kevin Curran has died after a long period of ill health.

Fox confirmed the 59-year-old died at his home in Los Angeles, USA on Tuesday.

Curran won three Emmy Awards for the animated series and three for his work as part of the writing team on Late Night With David Letterman.

In the 1990s he worked on Fox’s Married With Children , Unhappily Ever After  and The Good Life before joining The Simpsons’ writing staff full-time. He wrote 11 episodes over the last 14 years, and also served as a key member of the creative hierarchy as an executive producer.

Among those paying tribute to Curran’s life and legacy was Simpsons showrunner Al Jean, who said in a press statement: “Kevin Curran was a sweet, brilliant man who said many hilarious things, some unprintable, others which will live forever in a children’s cartoon.”

He is survived by his two children, Dashiell and Romy, with former partner Helen Fielding.