‘Air Bud’ Creator Kevin DiCicco Dies at 63 After Life of Ups and Downs
Kevin DiCicco found a stray dog near his cabin in Yosemite, California, in 1989.
He trained that dog to play basketball, baseball, football, and soccer, and later developed the concept into a film. He earned 11 credits across a franchise that eventually spanned 14 movies released between 1997 and 2013.
DiCicco died Saturday in San Diego at 63 — in hospice care, on an oxygen tank, after years of homelessness. His brother, Mark DiCicco, confirmed the death to TMZ.
DiCicco’s journey began with Buddy, the stray he brought home and transformed into what he called “this tremendous canine athlete.”
“My obsession with sport, and his obsession with ball playing, the combination of the two, created this tremendous canine athlete,” DiCicco said of Buddy in a 2024 interview with NBC News.
DiCicco and Buddy built a public profile through appearances on America’s Funniest Home Videos and David Letterman’s Stupid Pet Tricks. From there, DiCicco worked with independent producer Keystone Entertainment to develop the concept into a film.
Then the chain of ownership shifted. Miramax acquired distribution rights to Air Bud. Disney, Miramax’s parent company at the time, released the film to video.
The original 1997 film follows Buddy, a runaway circus dog who befriends a boy named Josh and helps lead his school’s basketball team to a championship.
What followed was enormous: the Air Bud franchise grew to consist of 14 films, including five original Air Bud movies focusing on the basketball-playing dog and nine spin-off films centered around his pups.
DiCicco bred and trained three of Buddy’s offspring for future films in the franchise.
A sixth original film, Air Bud Returns, is set for a theatrical release on August 21, 2026.
Kevin DiCicco’s Fame Didn’t Amount to Financial Success
Despite the franchise’s reach and longevity, DiCicco said he saw little financial benefit from its success. In his own words, the structure was deliberate.
“They are so cleverly crafted to make sure that these films don’t really ever receive the big money,” DiCicco said in a 2024 interview with Fox 5 San Diego. “That’s why we now find ourselves in a position of instead of enjoying those twilight years and sliding into retirement, we’re almost having to start over.”
As a result, DiCicco lost his job as a property manager during the COVID-19 pandemic. He became homeless and developed severe clinical depression.
“With pretty much nothing in your pocket and in a dire situation is exactly what happened. I think the worst part of it … is the severe clinical depression that goes along with it,” DiCicco told NBC News.
His COPD — advanced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease — required him to use an oxygen tank to breathe.
COPD “is an ongoing lung condition caused by damage to the lungs,” according to the Mayo Clinic. It often results in swelling and irritation, also called inflammation, inside the airways that can limit airflow into and out of the lungs.
This article was created by content specialists using various tools, including AI.
