Kathryn Beaumont | |
|---|---|
 Kathryn Beaumont 1951 | |
| Born | 27 June 1938 [1] |
| Education | University of Southern California |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active |
|
| Known for | Alice in Wonderland Peter Pan |
| Spouse | Allan Levine (m. 1985) |
| Awards | Disney Legend (1998) |
Kathryn Beaumont Levine (born 27 June 1938) [1] is a British actress. She is best known for voicing Alice in Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Wendy Darling in Peter Pan (1953), for which she was named a Disney Legend in 1998. [3]
Kathryn Beaumont was born to Evelyn and Kenneth Beaumont in London, England on 27 June 1938. [1] [4] Evelyn was a professional dancer, while Kenneth was a singer. [5]
Beaumont was an infant when World War II began. Though authorities in war-torn England urged Evelyn to send her daughter to safety on the SS Athenia, Evelyn refused. Authorities were very upset at first, but when the ship sank, they "ceased to scold" her for her decision. However, after frequent bombing raids—and witnessing the death of a close friend—Evelyn and Kathryn moved to the safer, smaller area of Bangor, Wales. When the war ended in 1945, all three of the Beaumonts moved back to London. [5] [6]
Beaumont's first experience with acting came when Evelyn enrolled her in school "when she was still very small." There, she played in a school pantomime and later in a play. After watching Beaumont perform, her teacher told her mother that she had a talent for acting. [5]
Beaumont made her feature film debut in It Happened One Sunday (1944), which drew interest from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, who offered her a contract. [7] She recalled: "MGM was planning to have films with British characters and British-type stories. However, as ideas come and go, they must have shelved the idea because they brought me over and put me under contract, then nothing happened." [7] In spite of this, she did play small parts in MGM's On an Island with You (1948), where she did a Jimmy Durante impression in front of Durante's character, a non-speaking, uncredited role in The Secret Garden (1949) and another uncredited role in Challenge to Lassie (1949), though she did appear on one of its film posters. [5]
After Beaumont had relocated to Los Angeles, Walt Disney Pictures began auditioning young British actresses to portray Alice in their animated version of Alice in Wonderland (1951). [7] Beaumont auditioned three times and received the role, [8] working under voice director Winston Hibler. [7] While filming Alice in Wonderland, Beaumont's mother and tutor stayed on set with her. Though she worked four hours a day, she still studied three. After filming finished, she went on a promotional tour, which included several on-screen appearances with Walt Disney. [5]
Disney subsequently cast her in the voice role of Wendy Darling in their following feature, Peter Pan (1953). [7] In addition to providing her voice, Beaumont also served as the performance model for both characters for live-action reference to help the animators. When performing as Wendy, Beaumont was suspended in the air to simulate flight, although she had a fear of heights. [9] When asked how she overcame her fear of heights, Beaumont answered, "[I] gritted my teeth! That’s about all you can do. I thought, ‘Oh, well, I have to do what I have to do.’ So you grit your teeth and you do it." [8] Walt Disney personally cast Beaumont in the role of Wendy after seeing the film, On an Island with You .
Beaumont reprised her voice acting role as Alice in two episodes of the animated series House of Mouse (2001–2003) and as both Alice and Wendy in the 2002 video game Kingdom Hearts . In 1998, Beaumont was awarded a Disney Legend award for her voice work on the films Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan.
In 2005, Beaumont retired from acting; [10] the roles of Alice and Wendy were taken over by Hynden Walch. She made a brief return to voice acting in 2010 when she voiced Kairi's grandmother in Disney's Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep . [11] [12] In 2023, she once again returned to voice acting by guest-starring as the original Alice in season 2 of Alice's Wonderland Bakery . [13]
After completing Peter Pan, Beaumont enrolled in high school, where she joined a drill team and ran for a position in student government. [5] After graduating, Beaumont enrolled at the University of Southern California, where she graduated with a degree in education. [7] Upon graduating from college, Beaumont worked as an elementary school teacher in Los Angeles for 36 years. [7]
Beaumont has been married to her husband, Allan Levine, since 1985. [2] She never had children. [5]
As of 2024, she is the last surviving cast member of It Happened One Sunday (1944) and Alice in Wonderland (1951).
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1944 | It Happened One Sunday | Jill Buckland | |
| 1948 | On an Island with You | Penelope Peabody | |
| 1949 | The Secret Garden | Muriel | Uncredited |
| 1949 | Challenge to Lassie | Tenement Child | Uncredited |
| 1951 | Operation Wonderland | Herself / Alice | |
| 1951 | Alice in Wonderland | Alice (voice) | Live-action reference |
| 1953 | Peter Pan | Wendy Darling (voice) | Live-action reference |
| 1963 | Noddy Goes to Toyland | Noddy / Mrs. Tubby Bear / Mrs. Noah / The Little Doll / The Little Doll's Mother (voices) | Uncredited |
| 2003 | 101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure | Additional Voices |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1950 | One Hour in Wonderland | Herself / Alice | [1] |
| 1951 | The Fred Waring Show | Alice | |
| 1951 | What's My Line | Herself | 1 episode |
| 1955 | TV Reader's Digest | Priscilla Mullins | Episode: "The Voyage of Captain Tom Jones, the Pirate" |
| 1955 | Climax! | Dorrant's Daughter | Episode: "The First and the Last" |
| 1958 | From All of Us to All of You | Alice / Wendy (voices) | TV special |
| 2002 | House of Mouse | Alice (voice) | 2 episodes |
| 2023 | Alice's Wonderland Bakery | Original Alice (voice) | Special: "Alice's First Day in Wonderland" |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Disney's Villains' Revenge | Alice | |
| 2002 | Kingdom Hearts | Alice / Wendy Darling | |
| 2010 | Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep | Kairi's Grandmother | |
| 2013 | Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix | Alice / Wendy Darling | Archive recordings |
| 2014 | Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix | Kairi's Grandmother | |
| 2016 | Kingdom Hearts χ | Kairi's Grandmother |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1982 | Alice in Wonderland | Alice | Voice [14] |
| 1992 | Fantasmic! | Wendy Darling | Voice |
| Year | Award | Category | Title | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Disney Legend Award | Animation – Voice | Won |
Tinker Bell is a fictional character from J. M. Barrie's 1904 play Peter Pan and its 1911 novelisation Peter and Wendy. She has appeared in a variety of film and television adaptations of the Peter Pan stories, in particular the 1953 animated Walt Disney picture Peter Pan and its 2023 live action adaptation Peter Pan & Wendy. She also appears in the official 2006 sequel Peter Pan in Scarlet by Geraldine McCaughrean commissioned by Great Ormond Street Hospital as well as the "Peter and the Starcatchers" book series by Ridley Pearson and Dave Barry.
Alice in Wonderland is a 1951 American animated musical fantasy comedy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. It is based on Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its 1871 sequel Through the Looking-Glass. The production was supervised by Ben Sharpsteen, and was directed by Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, and Hamilton Luske. With the voices of Ed Wynn, Richard Haydn, Sterling Holloway, Jerry Colonna and Kathryn Beaumont in her film debut, the film follows a young girl, Alice, who falls down a rabbit hole and enters a nonsensical world, Wonderland, which is ruled by the Queen of Hearts, while encountering strange creatures, including the Mad Hatter and the Cheshire Cat.
Paige O'Hara is an American actress, singer, and painter. O'Hara began her career as a Broadway actress in 1975 when she portrayed Della in The Gift of the Magi. In 1991, she made her motion picture debut in Disney's Beauty and the Beast, in which she voiced the film's heroine, Belle. Following the critical and commercial success of Beauty and the Beast, O'Hara reprised her role as Belle in the film's three direct-to-video follow-ups, Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas (1997), Belle's Magical World (1998), Belle's Tales of Friendship (1999), and for cameo appearances in Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018) and Once Upon a Studio (2023).
Peter Pan is a 1953 American animated adventure fantasy film produced in 1952 by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. Based on J. M. Barrie's 1904 play Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, the film was directed by Hamilton Luske, Clyde Geronimi, and Wilfred Jackson. Featuring the voices of Bobby Driscoll, Kathryn Beaumont, Hans Conried, Bill Thompson, Heather Angel, Paul Collins, Tommy Luske, Candy Candido, Tom Conway, Roland Dupreee and Don Barclay, the film's plot follows Wendy Darling and her two brothers, who meet the never-growing-up Peter Pan and travel with him to the island of Never Land to stay young, where they also have to face Peter's archenemy, Captain Hook.
Marc Fraser Davis was a prominent American artist and animator for Walt Disney Animation Studios. He was one of Disney's Nine Old Men, the famed core animators of Disney animated films, and was revered for his knowledge and understanding of visual aesthetics. After his work on One Hundred and One Dalmatians he moved to Walt Disney Imagineering to work on rides for Disneyland and Walt Disney World before retiring in 1978.
Return to Never Land is a 2002 animated adventure fantasy film produced by Disney MovieToons and Walt Disney Television Animation. A sequel to Walt Disney Feature Animation's 1953 film Peter Pan, the film follows Wendy's daughter, Jane, who is mistakenly abducted and brought to Neverland and must learn to believe in order to return home. The film stars the voices of Harriet Owen, Blayne Weaver, Corey Burton, Jeff Bennett, Kath Soucie, Spencer Breslin, and Bradley Pierce.
Virginia Davis was an American child actress in films. She is best known for working with Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks on the animated short series Alice Comedies, in which she portrayed the protagonist Alice.
Mary Blair was an American artist, animator, and designer. She was prominent in producing art and animation for The Walt Disney Company, drawing concept art for such films as Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Song of the South and Cinderella. Blair also created character designs for enduring attractions such as Disneyland's It's a Small World, the fiesta scene in El Rio del Tiempo in the Mexico pavilion in Epcot's World Showcase, and an enormous mosaic inside Disney's Contemporary Resort. Several of her illustrated children's books from the 1950s remain in print, such as I Can Fly by Ruth Krauss. Blair was inducted into the group of Disney Legends in 1991.
Hynden Walch is an American actress best known for voicing Starfire in the Teen Titans franchise and Princess Bubblegum in Adventure Time. She also voiced Penny Sanchez in ChalkZone, Amore and Lockette in the Nickelodeon version of Winx Club, Elsie in Stanley, and Yutaka Kobayakawa in Lucky Star. Outside of animation, Walch has appeared in live-action films like Groundhog Day and Jerry Maguire, and TV series like Law & Order.
One Hour in Wonderland is a 1950 television special made by Walt Disney Productions. It was first seen on Christmas Day, 1950, over NBC for Coca-Cola, and was Walt Disney's first television production. It featured Disney as host, with Bobby Driscoll, Kathryn Beaumont, Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy, and other celebrities who worked with Disney, including the Firehouse Five Plus Two jazz band. This special was actually a promotional program for Disney's upcoming theatrical feature, Alice in Wonderland. Kathryn Beaumont, who voiced Alice, was dressed like her for this television special.
Wendy Moira Angela Darling is a fictional character and one of the main protagonists of the 1904 play and 1911 novel Peter and Wendy by J. M. Barrie, as well as in most adaptations in other media. Her exact age is not specified in the original play or novel by Barrie, though it is implied that she is about Peter's age as she is "just Peter's size".
Tinker Bell is an animated fantasy film series based around the character Tinker Bell, produced by DisneyToon Studios as part of the Disney Fairies franchise after producing a number of direct-to-video Winnie the Pooh films. Voices of Mae Whitman, Lucy Liu, Raven-Symoné, America Ferrera, Kristin Chenoweth and Pamela Adlon are featured in the films. Six feature films and one TV special were produced: Tinker Bell, Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure, Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue, Secret of the Wings,Pixie Hollow Games, The Pirate Fairy, and Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast. The series is a spin-off of and prequel to Peter Pan. Originally developed as a direct-to-video franchise, the series was theatrically released from its third film onwards.
Hamilton Somers Luske was an American animator and film director.
Disney's Nine Old Men were a group of Walt Disney Productions' core animators, who worked at the studio from the 1920s to the 1980s. Some of the Nine Old Men also worked as directors, creating some of Disney's most popular animated movies from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to The Rescuers. The group was named by Walt Disney himself, and they worked in both short and feature films. Disney delegated more and more tasks to them in the animation department in the 1950s when their interests expanded, and diversified their scope. Eric Larson was the last to retire from Disney, after his role as animation consultant on The Great Mouse Detective in 1986. All nine members of the group were acknowledged as Disney Legends in 1989 and all would receive the Winsor McCay Award for their lifetime or career contributions to the art of animation.
Alice, the main protagonist of Lewis Carroll's novels Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1871), has been adapted to several media.
Alice in Wonderland, or simply Alice, is a Disney media franchise, commencing in 1951 with the theatrical release of the animated film Alice in Wonderland. The film is an adaptation of the books by Lewis Carroll, the 1865 novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its 1871 sequel Through the Looking-Glass, which featured his character Alice. A live-action film directed by Tim Burton was released in 2010.
Once Upon a Mouse is a 1981 American theatrical featurette directed by Jerry Kramer and Gary Rocklen of Kramer/Rocklen Studios, produced in association with Walt Disney Productions. It was released on July 10, 1981 on a double bill with The Fox and the Hound.
Alice's Wonderland Bakery is an American animated television series created for Disney Junior by Chelsea Beyl, inspired by Alice in Wonderland (1951). The series centers on Alice, a young baker who works at the Wonderland Bakery and is the great-granddaughter of the original Alice Pleasance Liddell. Rosa—the Princess of Hearts—Hattie, and Fergie the white rabbit accompany her on her culinary explorations throughout the kingdom. The show intends to highlight the importance of food, which is used as a form of self-expression and creativity. Libby Rue, Abigail Estrella, CJ Uy, Jack Stanton, Secunda Wood, and Audrey Wasilewski voice the primary characters.
Tinker Bell is a fictional fairy based on the same name character created in 1904 by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie, and one of the most popular characters adapted for film and television by The Walt Disney Company. She first appeared in the 1953 Disney animated film, Peter Pan, and has since become a widely recognized unofficial mascot of Disney, next to the company's official mascot Mickey Mouse. She is recognized as "a symbol of 'the magic of Disney'".
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