Verna Felton

Verna Felton (July 20, 1890, Salinas, California – December 14, 1966, Hollywood, California) was an Emmy-nominated American actress who was best-known for providing many female voices in numerous Disney animated films, as well as voicing Fred Flintstone's mother-in-law Pearl Slaghoople for Hanna-Barbera.

Her film appearances during the 1940s included "If I Had My Way" (1940), "Girls of the Big House" (1945) and "The Fuller Brush Man" (1948). She was much in demand as a movie character actress during the early 1950s, including "Belles on Their Toes" (1952) and "Don't Bother to Knock" (1952) and her memorable supporting role of Mrs. Potts in the film of William Inge's "Picnic" (1956).

Radio and television

She also worked extensively in radio, notably playing Junior the Mean Widdle Kid's grandmother on Red Skelton's radio series and Dennis Day's mother on "The Jack Benny Program". She also performed on radio as a regular on "The Abbott and Costello Show". Felton was married to radio actor Lee Millar (1888-1941), who also did animation voices (notably for Disney's Pluto), and their son, Lee Carson Millar Jr. (1924-1980), appeared as an actor on a variety of TV shows between 1952 and 1967.

Her guest appearances on "I Love Lucy" led to a regular supporting role on the Spring Byington series "December Bride" as Hilda Crocker, a role she continued to play in the series' spinoff, "Pete and Gladys".

Disney and MGM

Felton was a popular actress at the Walt Disney Studios and MGM Studios, lending her voice to several animated features, including:
*"Dumbo" (1941) as The Matriarch Elephant
*"Cinderella" (1950) as the Fairy Godmother
*"Alice in Wonderland" (1951) as the Queen of Hearts
*"Lady and the Tramp" (1955) as Aunt Sarah
*"Sleeping Beauty" (1959) as Flora
*"Goliath II" (1960) as Eloise the Elephant
*"The Jungle Book" (1967) as Winifred the Elephant

Elephants on parade

Synchronistically, Felton died of a stroke on the evening of December 14, 1966, only hours before the death of Walt Disney.

Both her first and her last voice acting roles for Disney were those of elephants, The Matriarch Elephant in "Dumbo" and Winifred the Elephant in "The Jungle Book". Besides the two elephants, her warm character voice was versatile enough to voice two kind fairies (Fairy Godmother and Flora) and three villains (Matriarch, Queen of Hearts and Aunt Sarah).

References

*Terrace, Vincent. "Radio Programs, 1924-1984". Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 1999. ISBN 0-7864-0351-9

External links

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