Eleanor Audley

Eleanor Audley was an American actress whose distinctive voice carried across Broadway, radio, live-action film, animation, and television. Born in New York City, she made her Broadway debut at 21 in the 1926 production Howdy, King and later appeared in stage works including On Call, Susan and God, and In Bed We Cry. In the 1940s and 1950s she was busy in radio, playing Mrs. Cooper on My Favorite Husband and Mrs. Smith on Father Knows Best. After an uncredited first screen role in The Story of Molly X in 1949, she took live-action parts in Home Before Dark (1958), The Second Time Around (1961), and Hook, Line and Sinker (1969). She voiced Lady Tremaine in Cinderella (1950) and Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty (1959), also serving as the performance model for both, and supplied the voice of Madame Leota for the Haunted Mansion attractions. Her television work included playing Eunice Douglas on Green Acres.