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  • All actors have a special gift with the ability to hide behind a character.

  • Voice actors are able to go one step further by masking their physical appearance to become

  • someone completely different.

  • Disney has created countless beloved characters for generations but viewers may not realize

  • that many characters were played by the same actor.

  • Here are 10 Actors You Didn’t Know Voiced More than one Major Disney Movie Character

  • Sterling Holloway Cheshire Cat and Winnie the Pooh

  • Cheshire Cat and Winnie the Pooh were voiced by Sterling Holloway.

  • The actor was one of the original voice actors hired by Walt Disney.

  • His credits expand far beyond the two characters but Cheshire Cat and Winnie the Pooh may be

  • his most beloved work in his sixty year career.

  • 1951’s Alice in Wonderland based on Lewis Carroll's novel, showcased Holloway as the

  • devious feline who insists on confusing Alice in the mysterious land.

  • Holloway also played the similarly mischievous Kaa from Disney’s The Jungle Book.

  • He was then given the role of Winnie Pooh in the 1960s.

  • He continued the role in The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh until 1977.

  • Pooh’s rumbly-tumbly and bumbly persona may seem like a completely different character

  • for Holloway but he defined the role as others only impersonate the sound he created.

  • Kathryn, Beaumont, Alice and Wendy

  • Kathryn Beaumont was only twelve years-old when she was discovered by Walt Disney and

  • given the role of Alice in Alice in Wonderland.

  • Her youthful voice lent an innocence that could not be easily feigned by an older actress.

  • When Walt was casting the role of a similarly positive young girl who ends up in a magical

  • land, he looked no further than Beaumont, for the role of Wendy Darling in 1953's Peter

  • Pan.

  • The two characters don’t just sound similar, they also have a nearly identical face as

  • the animators based the characters on the small featured actress.

  • Kathryn Beaumont was pleased to be a Disney legend and showed that appreciation by voicing

  • the two characters until 2005 for television specials and video games.

  • After that she retired and a younger actress stepped into the petite shoes of Alice and

  • Wendy.

  • Verna Felton Fairy, Godmother and Queen of Hearts

  • It may be hard to believe that the person who played Cinderella’s kind and generous

  • Godmother also played the villainous Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland, but actress

  • Verna Felton voiced the greatly contrasting women.

  • Felton was an actress born in 1890 so by the time she was playing two of Disney’s most

  • recognizable characters, she was already a seasoned actress in radio, film, and television.

  • Just like most of the actors who work for Disney, she was given many roles throughout

  • her time working for the famous mouse.

  • Her ability to play the gentle Fairy Godmother with genuine believability did not exactly

  • type-cast her as she was given the role of the nasty Queen of Hearts one year later.

  • Providing memorable voices was a family affair as Felton’s husband actor Lee Millar was

  • the voice of Pluto.

  • Bill Thompson, Smee and White Rabbit

  • Smee is Captain Hook’s first mate and practically his personal assistant so it may not come

  • as a surprise that the actor who played him also voiced The White Rabbit.

  • Just as Smee supports Hook even at his most demanding, The White Rabbit’s first instinct

  • is to ensure the Queen of Heart’s comfort at every turn even when she requires outlandish

  • things.

  • Bill Thompson was a vaudevillian and radio actor when he began working with Disney.

  • He started performing in shorts voicing Droopy dog.

  • Just like many of the characters who are voiced by the same actor, there is a resemblance

  • to White Rabbit and Smee even though one is a neurotic rodent who has issues with being

  • tardy.

  • They both are short, stout, and eager to please

  • Eleanor Audley, Lady Tremaine and Maleficent Two of the most wicked antagonists to Disney

  • princesses are Cinderella's evil stepmother, Lady Tremaine, and Aurora’s insanely bitter

  • Godmother Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty.

  • Their similar devilish demeanor and chilling voices are from actress Eleanor Audley.

  • Audley worked in television, film and radio for years before obtaining the roles.

  • She initially turned down the role for Maleficent due to her battling tuberculosis at the time,

  • but she was made for the role.

  • The animators based both characters on the actress as it was common to dress the model

  • in the character's attire to get a realistic design.

  • The malevolent evil-doers were not the only voice Audley did for Disney, she can be heard

  • to this day as Madame Leona, the psychic spirit in The Haunted Mansion attraction at Disneyland

  • and Disney World.

  • Bobby Driscoll, Goofy Jr. and Peter Pan Bobby Driscoll was one of the first child

  • actors to receive a contract with Disney in the 1940’s.

  • He started out in the live action film Song of the South.

  • In 1952, the fifteen year-old Driscoll was given the voice role of Goofy Jr. in the classic

  • Disney short, Father’s Lion, in which Goofy and his son go on a hunting trip.

  • Younger viewers may be more aware of Goofy’s son Max from A Goofy Movie, but it was Father’s

  • Lion that introduced the silly dynamic of Goofy and his son.

  • Driscoll scored his most memorable role a year later as the maturity stunted boy, Peter

  • Pan.

  • Bobby was also the model for Peter.

  • Unfortunately, Driscoll’s fame came at too early of an age and he was unable to maintain

  • success.

  • He died from an overdose at the age of thirty-one as he was a truly lost boy.

  • Jodi Benson, Ariel and Barbie Ariel is a teenage mermaid who just wants

  • to be part of our world which requires feet but apparently not much talking.

  • Barbie is a Mattel creation that became part of Andy’s toy crew.

  • The two characters share a bubbly disposition and struggle unnaturally on the legs they

  • are given.

  • They were also both played by Broadway actress Jodi Benson.

  • The Tony Award winning actress began her career in the early 1980s.

  • She cross paths with someone involved with 1989’s The Little Mermaid so she decided

  • to send in a demo of herself.

  • After getting the part she has continued to voice Ariel in films, television, video games,

  • and specials.

  • For the role of Barbie in Toy Story 2, Disney did not have to look far as Benson was the

  • ideal sound for the leggy blonde.

  • Phil Harris, Thomas O’Malley and Baloo What do the sly and confident Thomas O'Malley

  • from The Aristocats, the carefree and lovable Baloo from Jungle Book, and Robin Hood’s

  • right-hand bear Little John have in common?

  • They were all voiced by comedian, actor and jazz musician Phil Harris.

  • A jazz musician playing the three too cool-for-school characters was a perfect fit.

  • His voice became known for generations after not only playing the speaking voice but also

  • singing songs likeThe Bare NecessitiesandEverybody wants to be a Cat”.

  • After more than a decade without Disney, Harris recorded Baloo once again for the 1990 series,

  • Talespin.

  • Unfortunately, the producers decided his aged voice was not a good fit and replaced him

  • with a sound-alike.

  • Jimmy McDonald, Mickey Mouse, Chip, Dormouse, and Jacque

  • While most of the actors who work for Disney stick to their job as a performer, Jimmy McDonald

  • was a man of many skills.

  • He started out as the head of Disney’s sound department.

  • He was responsible for not only creating the sound effects but also composed the music

  • for some early Disney shorts.

  • He began doing supplemental voice work for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, but his big

  • break into acting was becoming the new voice of Mickey Mouse in 1947.

  • He remained the legendary mouse for thirty years.

  • In addition he was Chip of Chip and Dale, Jacque the helpful mouse in Cinderella and

  • the sleepy Dormouse from Alice in Wonderland.

  • His aptitude for voicing likable critters has cemented his position as one of the most

  • versatile Disney employees in history.

  • Barbara Luddy, Lady and Roo Barbara Luddy played two dogs and two maternal

  • guides.

  • Lady is known to be the delicate and composed cocker spaniel who falls in love and has a

  • memorable spaghetti dinner with a boisterous mutt in Lady and the Tramp.

  • Then there is Roo’s adoring mother Kanga who has a kind voice and sensible disposition.

  • Actress Barbara Luddy played the two enduring characters and spent most of her career working

  • with Disney.

  • Along with Lady, she also voiced Rover from 101 Dalmatians.

  • Using the same protective cadence she used for Kanga, she also provided the voice of

  • one of Aurora’s Godmother, Merriweather in Sleeping Beauty.

  • Luddy started out as a Vaudevillian actor and worked occasionally on television, but

  • her Disney work remained her legacy.

  • There’s our list.

  • What did you think?

  • Which Disney voice actors did we forget?

  • Let us know in the comments and don’t forget to subscribe to our channel.

All actors have a special gift with the ability to hide behind a character.

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