JOIN RUSC   |   MEMBER LOGIN   |   HELP

Eleanor Audley

Show Count: 51
Series Count: 2
Role: Old Time Radio Star
Old Time Radio
Born: November 19, 1905, New York City, New York, U.S
Died: November 25, 1991, North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, U.S

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 Lady Tremaine in Cinderella and Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty.

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 both films, animator Marc Davis created the characters' facial features to resemble Audley. Audley initially turned down the choice role of Maleficent because she was battling tuberculosis. 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, 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.

Source: Wikipedia

Father Knows BestFather Knows Best
Show Count: 112
Broadcast History: 25 August 1949 to 19 November 1953
Sponsor: General Foods
Cast: Robert Young, Sam Edwards, Norma Jean Nilsson, Herb Vigran, June Whitley, Eleanor Audley, Ted Donaldson, Rhoda Williams, Jean Vander Pyl
Director: Fran Van Hartesveldt, Ken Burton, Murray Bolen
Producer: Fran Van Hartesveldt, Ken Burton, Murray Bolen
An American radio and television comedy series which portrayed a middle class family life in the Midwest. It was created by writer Ed James in the 1940s, and ran on radio from 1949 to 1954 and on television from 1954 to 1960.
Broadcast: 25th January 1959
Added: Oct 17 2011
Broadcast: 24th May 1950
Added: Jun 05 2009
Broadcast: 30th March 1951
Added: Jun 05 2010
Broadcast: 15th September 1957
Added: Nov 22 2010
Broadcast: 16th August 1950
Added: Oct 09 2011
Broadcast: 16th April 1950
Added: Nov 15 2010
Broadcast: 28th July 1957
Added: Nov 03 2011
Broadcast: November 6, 1950
Added: Sep 15 2011