Movie Musings: Disney and More

J. Pat O’Malley: Tone Changer

You might remember from some of my earlier blogs that I talked about various talented actors who frequently lent their voices to Disney cartoon characters. In this blog, I’d like to tell you about yet another actor—this one a personal request of Walt Disney himself—J. Pat O’Malley.

James Patrick Francis O’Malley was born in Burley England on March 14th, 1904. He started his career performing as a singer in the United Kingdom in 1925 and later signed on as a principal singer with Jack Hylton and his orchestra from 1930-1933. Known as just Pat O’Malley at the time, he recorded more than 400 songs with that orchestra including “Amy, Beautiful Amy,” which was a song about aviator Amy Johnson. O’Malley later partnered with Hylton, himself and they came to the United States in 1935 to record music with a band of American musicians. Their partnership, unfortunately, was short-lived and Hylton returned to England while O’Malley remained in the U.S. and ultimately found his way into acting. Addding the first initial of James back onto his first name, he became becoming J. Pat O’Malley to avoid confusion with the American actor, Patrick Henry O’Malley.

J. Pat O’Malley made his film debut in United Artists Captain Caution in 1940. He also made the films Thumbs Up and Lassie Come Home in 1943, and in both films he starred opposite Elsa Lanchester. He later appeared on the Broadway Stage in the play Ten Little Indians in 1944. It wasn’t long before O’Malley’s interesting British accent caught the attention of Walt Disney who hired O’Malley to voice the character of Cyril Proudbottom (the horse) in The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949). In addition to the horse, he also voiced the characters of Mr. Winkie, the Policemen and the Paperboy.

After lending his voice to “Ichabod and Mr. Toad,” O’Malley voiced Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dum, the Walrus, the Carpenter, and the Curious Oysters in Alice in Wonderland (1951), Jasper and Colonel the sheep dog in 101 Dalmatians (1961), the Pearly Band Drummer, the Huntsman, The Master of Hounds, and the Penguin Waiter in Mary Poppins (1964), Colonel Hathai the Elephant and one of the Vultures in The Jungle Book (1967), and Otto the Blacksmith Bloodhound in Robin Hood (1973). While voicing his bit roles in “Poppins,” he helped Dick Van Dyke develop his cockney accent for his role as Bert the Chimney Sweep in the film. 

Besides all these film roles, Walt Disney also hired O’Malley to play the role of “Perkins” in the Disney television serials “Spin and Marty,” which aired as part of The Mickey Mouse Club (1955-1959), and he also voiced several of the pirates in Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean attraction at Disneyland and Walt Disney World, including the pirate dunking the magistrate into the well and also one of the prisoners who coaxes the dog with the keys.. He also lent his voice to two cartoon shorts, Goliath 2 (1960) and The Saga Windwagon Smith (1961), and he even appeared in the live-action Disney film, Son of Flubber (1963), the sequel to The Absent-Minded Professor (1961).

In 1969, J. Pat O’Malley appeared as the Park Policeman in Hello, Dolly! (1969) and portrayed Carol Brady’s father, Henry Tyler, in the pilot episode of The Brady Bunch (1969-1974). He continued acting in film and television until the early 1980s and passed away on February 27th, 1985 due to heart disease. He truly was a talented actor with a unique voice who helped make many Disney characters endearing.