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| Image courtesy famousbirthdays.com |
On this day, in 1938, Kathryn Beaumont was born in London, England. The daughter of a singer and a dancer, Kathryn was exposed to show business from the moment she was born. When the Germans began bombing London during World War II, she relocated to Northern Wales with her mother in 1941. Through her parents' contacts she made an uncredited appearance in a British romantic comedy,
It Happened One Sunday, in 1944. When she returned to London at the war's end, Kathryn was offered a contract with MGM, who was looking to capitalize on American's war time fascination with all things British. The Beaumonts relocated to Los Angeles, California in order to fulfill that contract, but it never really panned out. She had small parts in
On an Island With You, which starred Jimmy Durante,
Challange to Lassie, and the 1949 production of
The Secret Garden, which turned out to be child star Margaret O'Brien's last film and led to Kathryn's Disney debut, albeit in a roundabout way.
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| Image courtesy kathrynbeaumont.com |
Margaret O'Brien was quickly outgrowing her career, which apparently everyone but her mother could see. As her contract with MGM was nearing it's end, Margaret's mom tried to toughly renegotiate it by saying the studio should resign her for more money or let her go so she could make more money somewhere else. MGM immediately agreed to let her go, which should have been a red flag to Mrs. O'Brien. Being released from her contract meant that Margaret was available to play Alice in the Walt Disney Studio's
Alice in Wonderland. Walt announced the casting and Mrs. O'Brien saw that announcement as a chance to ask for more money. A heated discussion ensued (some would call it a shouting match). At the end of it, Margaret was unemployed, Kathryn, who had also just been let out of her MGM contract, was auditioned and, four hours later, offered the role. In later years, Disney tried to say that Kathryn was the choice all along because she was British enough to stay true to the British story but not too British that American audiences would be put off. I say bullox. Margaret wasn't British at all and that's just a story to cover up a bad casting choice. At any rate, the problem was fixed and fixed well.
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| Image courtesy youtube.com |
Not only did Kathryn provide the voice for Alice but she filmed all the live action reference for the animators as well, which ended up being a little more than she bargained for. With all the crazy twisting and turning Alice had to do because of falling down rabbit holes (and various other hallucinatory moves), the live action shots actually made Kathryn quite nauseous. She was literally spun and twirled and dropped using all sorts of contraptions in order for the animators to get perspectives (and I'm sure facial expressions) just right. It wasn't enough to put her off performing as Alice however. She continued to be part of the movie's press events and was even there for the studio's first television production,
One Hour in Wonderland.
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| Image copyright Disney |
Following an extended press tour, Kathryn returned home to be offered a role in Disney's next animated feature,
Peter Pan. She accepted the role of Wendy Darling and once again agreed to do the live action reference filming, once again ending up out of her comfort zone. This time around, the animators wanted shots of people flying through the air, so they rigged their three kids up on wires and suspended them high enough to film them from below. Kathryn has a fair to middling fear of heights and recalls feeling safe in the harness but that the stage looked really far away. Once again, she survived the ordeal and was more than happy to assist the studio with press events.
Following Peter Pan, Kathryn went off to high school where she joined the student government but shied away from the Drama Club. She was then accepted into the University of Southern California as an education major. During the summers throughout college, she continued her relationship with Disney, making appearances and recording voice overs for theme park attractions. When she graduated from USC, she became a teacher at a local elementary school and almost never looked back. I say almost because there was a handful of times when a student wondered why they recognized their teacher's voice and actually figured out why. It was a era before home video so Kathryn was safe most of the time, it was only during a periodic rerelease of one of her movies (or a showing on television) that anyone would make the connection. She lost touch with the Disney stuio and happily taught in relative anonymity for nearly thirty years.
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| Image copyright Disney |
In 1983, in preparation for the 30th anniversary of Peter Pan, Disney tracked Kathryn down and was surprised to find her practically in their backyard. She reacquainted herself with the company and began making appearances again, as well as making new recordings of Alice and Wendy. When the
Alice in Wonderland ride at Disneyland was refurbished and given a new soundtrack, Disney was able to get the original voice to do it. She also recorded all sorts of bits for various parades and video games. In 2005, she officially retired from acting a second time, turning all future recording duties over to Hynden Walch. In 1998, for embodying the quintessential classic Disney heroine, Kathryn was declared an official Disney Legend. She currently resides in Southern California with her husband of 34 years, Allen.
