June 27, 1938 – Voice Actress and Disney Legend Kathryn Beaumont is Born
“…I went directly from finishing Alice [in Wonderland], and immediately started working on the voice for Wendy.”
On June 27, 1938, Kathryn Beaumont was born in London, England. Her career began early with MGM, where she was under contract and starred in several films, including It Happened One Sunday and On an Island with You. In 1949, when Walt was looking for the perfect British voice for the titular character in Alice in Wonderland, Beaumont auditioned and won the coveted role. Not only did she voice the character in the film, but was also her live-action model. She helped promote the film in 1950 with a Christmas television special, One Hour in Wonderland, which was the first television special for the studio. After promoting the film in 1951, she came back to the studio to be cast as another British heroine: Wendy from Peter Pan. Again, Beaumont played the character in animation and in live-action, and helped promote the film through another Disney Christmas television special: The Walt Disney Christmas Show. After working on Peter Pan, Beaumont graduated high school and attended the University of Southern California, where she majored in education; she would stay in Los Angeles to teach elementary school. She was asked to voice her famous characters again for Disney park attractions and television specials, and continued to do so until 2005, when she retired from voice acting. She was honored in 1998 for her contribution in bringing these classic characters to life.
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