The Voice You’ve Always Heard But Never Knew
Whenever Walt Disney was casting the voices for his animated films he always hired newcomers with generally no acting experience whatsoever in the lead roles and radio/television personalities in the supporting roles. He cared much more about the quality of the peoples' voices in his pictures rather than their popularity, which is why he never cast a major Hollywood movie star in any of his cartoons. Many of the actors that he cast were fortunate enough to be hired by him more than once because of their distinctively unique voices. One actress, in particular, had such a warm and beautiful speaking voice, that Walt used her more than other actor he ever hired, and her name was Verna Felton.
Verna Felton made her Disney debut on Dumbo (1941) first by playing Dumbo’s mother, Mrs. Jumbo, and the Matriarch Elephant. She then voiced the Fairy Godmother inCinderella (1950). The very next year, she was the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland (1951). After that, she voiced Aunt Sarah in Lady and the Tramp (1955). Her role after that was Flora (the good fairy) in Sleeping Beauty (1959). Next, she portrayed Eloise the Elephant in a short called Goliath II (1960), and her very last role for the studio was Winifred the Elephant, Colonel Hathi’s wife in The Jungle Book (1967). Coincidentally, she passed away on the exact same day the Walt Disney himself passed away, December 15th, 1966. Unfortunately, neither lived to see the final cut of The Jungle Book (1967).
I don’t know for certain that Walt Disney and Verna Felton had a pleasant business relationship, but it’s difficult to imagine that not being the case. She portrayed so many heartwarming characters in each of these movies, with the exception of some villainesses. And in addition to hiring her, it was a family affair, because Walt also hired her husband, Lee Millar Sr. as the voice of Pluto and her son, Lee Milllar Jr. as the voice of Jim Dear in Lady and the Tramp (1955). It seems that Walt saw magic in all of their voices making them the right people for every one of those roles. Walt's, number one goal was to tell stories in magical ways, not to make movies that would be conspicuously entertaining. Verna Felton was definitely part of the magic!
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