Classic Disney voices...

[best12bars]

Posted: 4/29/08 at 2:37pm

Two of my favorite voice actresses ever!

The brilliant Verna Felton, who did the voices for the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella, Flora in Sleeping Beauty, a gossipy Elephant in Dumbo, Colonel Haji's wife (another elephant) in the Jungle Book, and the Queen of Hearts in Alice In Wonderland.

She was also in the movie "Picnic" as the neighbor Mrs. Potts.







And the fantastic Eleanor Audley, who provided the voices for Sleeping Beauty's Maleficent, and Cinderella's wicked stepmother Lady Tremane! She was also a regular on Green Acres as Eddie Albert's mother. And she's the voice of Madame Leota on the Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland.

[nitsua]

Posted: 4/29/08 at 2:40pm

Kathryn Beaumont played Alice and Wendy.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 4/29/08 at 2:41pm

Eleanor Audley RULES!! Wasn't she also the Wicked Queen in SNOW WHITE?

[Kasie]

Posted: 4/29/08 at 2:41pm

I had no idea that the lady on Green Acres was a voice for Disney...Very interesting!

[lildogs]

Posted: 4/29/08 at 2:41pm

VERY fancy...I was talking to a friend a few days ago about the lack of roles for older character actresses. They just don't write em like they used to--though Pat Carroll as Ursula ranks with the best.

[best12bars]

Posted: 4/29/08 at 2:44pm

Lucille La Verne was the voice of the Wicked Queen in Snow White. Sadly, it was the last thing she ever did.

Pictured here in 1935's "A Tale of Two Cities."

Updated On: 4/29/08 at 02:44 PM

[D2]

Posted: 4/29/08 at 2:45pm

Besty, you beat me to it. Loved her A TALE OF TWO CITIES.

And Eleanor Audley was wonderful. She pops up on LOTS of sitcoms from the 50's and 60's, usually as a ditzy society matron. Great voice.

Updated On: 4/29/08 at 02:45 PM

[DG]

Posted: 4/29/08 at 2:47pm

I love Eleanor Audley's voice.

LOVE.

[BigFatBlonde]

Posted: 4/29/08 at 2:47pm

Sorry folks.. but to me the REAL Disney Classic voice is...




Adriana Caselotti, the voice of Snow White

[DG]

Posted: 4/29/08 at 2:50pm

Well, the real classic 'Disney voice' is Walt himself doing Mickey.

[best12bars]

Posted: 4/29/08 at 2:51pm

Bobby Driscoll as Peter Pan.

Such a sad, short life!

[lildogs]

Posted: 4/29/08 at 2:58pm

Bobby was in THE WINDOW, right? Won a special Oscar?

[Flippancy]

Posted: 4/29/08 at 3:11pm

RE: Lucille LaVerne (voice of the Wicked Queen in Snow White)

I was so surprised to learn that LaVerne did the voice of both the beautiful queen AND the hag in Snow White! All she had to do for the latter was remove her false teeth and "gravel" her voice. The voice of the queen is so cultured, isn't it?

[Taryn]

Posted: 4/29/08 at 3:15pm

One thing I LOVED about the Kingdom Hearts video game was the fact that people like Kathryn Beaumont were still voicing their classic characters so many years later.

[nitsua]

Posted: 4/29/08 at 3:22pm

The Window was such a weird movie.

[best12bars]

Posted: 4/29/08 at 3:22pm

Kathryn actually re-recorded the voice-overs for both Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan rides in Disneyland fairly recently. Within the last 10 years. The trick? She talked slower and they sped the track up just a bit to make her sound more youthful. But she still sounded like she did as a child! You can hear her asking you to fasten your seatbelts...

(...it's going to be a bumpy ride! Puff, puff...)

[D2]

Posted: 4/29/08 at 3:23pm

Verna Felton also did a couple of guest shots on I LOVE LUCY - both as hilariously grumpy foils for Lucy. She's particularly funny as Mrs. Porter, the maid Ricky hires for Lucy after Little Ricky is born, and who ends up doing nothing while Lucy does all the work.

[best12bars]

Posted: 4/29/08 at 3:46pm

Just because I like ALL the fairies () and not just Flora the red one, here's a salute to Meriweather (the blue one)! Barbara Luddy, who was also the voice of Lady in "Lady and the Tramp."









And here's to Barbara Jo Allen! Fauna (the green one). I can't find a photo of her though... although she played a receptionist in the movie "The Women."

[broadwaywriter]

Posted: 4/29/08 at 3:53pm

These images of Disney remind me of my childhood and actually of some of my childhood fears.

[ShbrtAlley44]

Posted: 4/29/08 at 4:09pm

Love all these women - particularly Eleanor Audley.

Kingdom Hearts is the best game ever created. :)

[best12bars]

Posted: 4/29/08 at 4:25pm

Listen well, all of you...





Eleanor is/was the BEST.

[*brina-doll*]

Posted: 4/29/08 at 6:57pm

Wow, all these Disney voice tid-bits are so cool! And since I just watched the Jungle Book, my favorite male Disney classic voices: Phil Harris and Sterling Holloway.

[Mother's Younger Brother]

Posted: 4/29/08 at 7:05pm

Agreed. Eleanor is fab. She also appeared on the Dick Van Dyke Show a few times.

And Bobby Driscoll...*sigh*...so cute.

Some of my favorite Disney voices come from Disneyland attractions, and all those so-called "ride spiels" that are burned into my memory forever:

"Remain seated please. Permene ser sentados, por favor."

"Do not pull down on the safety bar...I will lower it for you."

"Your attention please...the Disneyland Limited, now arriving Main Street Station...."

"Dead men tell no tales."

[elphabelle07]

Posted: 4/29/08 at 7:20pm

eleanor audley was THE best ever! her voice was perfect for the villains she played. millificent (however the heck u spell it) is my favorite disney villain because of her voice!

and bobby driscoll was adorable

[best12bars]

Posted: 4/29/08 at 8:51pm

elphabelle07 --- every time I think about the boy who would never grow up and hear Bobby's perfect voice, somewhere exactly between a boy and a man, I get very sad. He WAS the boy who would never grow up. Right on the edge, though. And through a life of drugs and confusion, he ended up lost to us forever. I hope that somewhere, somehow, he knows what joy he brings to "young souls" everywhere. He made a difference, and he "counted."

He left his mark, even if his life ended far too soon in tragedy, solitude and sadness.



"Dead men tell no tales..."

"Do not pull down on the bar. I will do it for you!"

Mother's Younger Brother---That's the brilliant voice of Paul Frees. And while he didn't do any feature film voices for Disney, his voice was one I knew like the back of my hand growing up. He was Boris (of Boris and Natasha)... he was the Burger Meister Meisterburger, he was the narrator of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride AND the Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland. He was KING of the cartoon voices when I was a kid.

God bless Paul Frees!