Eleanor Audley

Eleanor Audley
Eleanor Audley
	File:Eleanor Audley.jpg Audley in costume concept for the role of Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty (1959)
Born	Eleanor Zellman; November 19, 1905; New York City, New York, U.S.
Died	November 25, 1991 (aged 86); North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Cause of death	Respiratory failure
Resting place	Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery
Occupation(s)	Radio, film, television and voice actress
Years active	1949–70

Eleanor Zellman (November 19, 1905 – November 25, 1991) was an American actress who was a familiar radio and animation voice, in addition to her TV and film roles. She is best remembered on television as Eunice Douglas on Green Acres and, for many, for providing Disney animated features with their most outstanding and memorable villainess voices, most notably two of the most sinister Disney villainesses, Lady Tremaine and Maleficent.^[1]

Radio

Beginning as a radio actress, she worked extensively in the 1940s and 50s in Hollywood on such shows as Escape, Suspense and the radio versions of My Favorite Husband (as mother-in-law Mrs. Cooper) and Father Knows Best (as one of the Anderson family's neighbors). In 1953, she played the stepmother in a re-imagining of the Cinderella story for The Six Shooter starring James Stewart.

Animation

In the animated film industry she was best known for giving her distinctive, powerful voice to the evil stepmother with gray hair, Lady Tremaine, in the Disney animated film Cinderella, and the evil fairy Maleficent in Disney's Sleeping Beauty. For these films, animators Frank Thomas and Marc Davis made the characters' facial features and expressions resemble Audley. Audley initially turned down the choice role of Maleficent because she was battling tuberculosis.^[2] She also provided the voice of Madame Leota in the Haunted Mansion attractions in Disneyland and Walt Disney World, speaking the memorable lines, "Rap on a table. It's time to respond. Send us a message from somewhere beyond!"

Peter-No-Tail (film) (Pelle Svanslös) (1981) (director together with Stig Lasseby; chief animator)
Peter-No-Tail in Americat (Pelle Svanslös i Amerikatt) (1985) (director together with Stig Lasseby; layout artist)

Television

Beginning in the mid-1950s, she appeared constantly on television, including episodes of I Love Lucy, Crossroads, The People's Choice, Richard Diamond, Private Detective, Perry Mason, Dennis the Menace, Hazel, Pete and Gladys, The Real McCoys, and The Dick Van Dyke Show. She was a series regular as Oliver Douglas's disapproving mother on Green Acres (although she was only five months older than actor Eddie Albert, who played her son). She also played Millicent Schuyler-Potts, the headmistress of the Potts School which Jethro Bodine attended in The Beverly Hillbillies.

References

^ Hischak, Thomas S. (2011). Disney Voice Actors: A Biographical Dictionary. McFarland. ISBN 978-0786462711. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
^ Audio-Commentary. Sleeping Beauty: Platinum Edition: Walt Disney Home Entertainment. 2008.