Update: Russi Taylor

UPDATE: It is with great sadness that I have to report on the passing of a Disney Legend. Russi Taylor, the voice of Minnie Mouse for over 30 years, died yesterday, July 26, 2019, in Glendale, California at the age of 75. She was also the wife of Wayne Allwine, the voice of Mickey Mouse for longer than anyone else, who died in 2008. Both of them were part of the post I did on February 7. You can read that post by clicking here. Our hearts go out to Russi's family. She was a talented lady who's polka-dotted bloomers will be hard to fill.

February 7 - Wayne Allwine and Russi Taylor

On this day, in 1947, Wayne Anthony Allwine was born in Glendale, California. His professional career begins, like all great scripted careers do, in the mail room at the Walt Disney Studio in 1966. If we were indeed making a movie of this story, we would almost certainly have a scene in which the 19-year-old Wayne approaches sound effects guru Jimmy MacDonald who takes an envelope from Walt Disney and hands it to Wayne, just so we can get all three of them in the frame together. It’s a moment that probably never actually happened, even though Wayne and Walt’s times did overlap for several months, but it would be a scene the audience would later remember and say to themselves “Ah. Foreshadowing.”

Wayne moved up from the mail room and landed in the Sound Effects department, apprenticing under Jimmy MacDonald. He became a pretty good sound effects editor. You can hear his work on Disney films like Splash and Three Men and a Baby as well as films he did for other studios like Innerspace and Star Trek V. But in late 1976 he began apprenticing under Jimmy for an entirely different reason.

Image copyright Disney

Jimmy was nearing retirement at that point and was going to be leaving behind a large hole to fill. He’d been doing the voice of Mickey Mouse since taking over from Walt in 1947. An audition was held and his already protégé, Wayne, won the role. Jimmy began coaching him and Wayne made his debut as the Big Cheese recording the opening title bits for The New Mickey Mouse Club in 1977. From that point on, Wayne was the mouse for the next 32 years. He made his big screen debut in Mickey’s Christmas Carol and voiced the role in everything from Who Framed Roger Rabbit to The Lion King 1 ½.

Movies, television series and specials, parades, you name it and Wayne was kept as busy as he could handle doing it. He also did a handful of other voices (you didn’t think squeaking was his only talent, did you?) including a Henchman in The Black Cauldron and Thug Guard #2 (not to be confused with #1, completely different guy) in The Great Mouse Detective.

Image courtesy of historybyzim.com

On a personal note, life began to imitate art for Wayne starting in 1986. It was decided that Minnie Mouse would start talking again (she hadn’t had any lines for several years) and an audition was held. Russi Taylor won the role. She recalls meeting Wayne in a hallway one day and his excitement over having a Minnie for the first time. Both were in failing marriages (his third). After their not-so-wedded-blisses ended, they began hanging out together outside of the recording booth. They fell in love, just like the mice they played, and got married in 1991, not like the mice they played. They kept it quiet in order to make their nuptials about them and not their characters (people went a little crazy even back then when they heard that Mickey and Minnie were married), but they did live happily ever after for the next two decades.

Image courtesy of me.

Praised by many for bringing Mickey out of the world of bland falsetto and into nuanced deliveries and a multi-faceted personality, Wayne did some of his best work on the video game series Kingdom Hearts.  He was heard daily on the Disney Channel’s Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and can still be heard every fifteen minutes in the Mickey’s PhilharMagic attraction at the Magic Kingdom. In 2008, both Wayne and Russi were made official Disney Legends for their outstanding stewardship of Mickey and Minnie’s legacies. On May 18, 2009, Wayne passed away at his home in Los Angeles, California, finally losing a battle he’d been fighting for several years with diabetes. He was only 62.

 To date, Wayne is the person who voiced Mickey the longest of the four talents who’ve done it (regularly) so far and, with all the media outlets that exist today, the most prolific (Russi is, by far, the longest Minnie). Bret Iwan took up the mantle after Wayne’s death. Bret was hired because of Wayne’s failing health and was supposed to understudy Wayne, just as Wayne understudied Jimmy, but the two never actually got to meet. So far Bret’s doing just fine. Most people never realized that a change occurred and only time will tell if Bret hangs on to the gig longer than Wayne, or if the third voice really is the charm.

September 10 - Bret Iwan

On this day, in 1982, Bret Iwan, the fourth person to officially give voice to Mickey Mouse, was born in Pasadena, California.

 When Mickey Mouse was first created and needed a voice because sound had come to the movies, the Disney Studio didn't have to go far to find someone to do it. Walt himself stepped up to the mic and falsettoed his way through dozens of shorts and even a few features. It was always a source of pride for Walt that he shared a voice with his little mouse.

By 1946 however, the demands of leading a growing company meant that Walt just didn't have time to spend in a recording studio anymore. After the "Mickey and the Beanstalk" segment of Fun and Fancy Free, Walt had to hand squeaking duties off to someone else.

A sound effects master and veteran musician for the company, Jimmy MacDonald became Mickey's second official voice. You might remember him if you ever saw the pre-show video to the sound effects show at Disney-MGM Studios. Jimmy gave voice to most of Mickey's words from 1946 until he retired in 1977. I say most because occasionally Walt would still sneak in a voice over before his death.

Another sound effects man took over from Jimmy, Wayne Allwine. The fun part about Wayne doing Mickey's voice is that his wife, Russi Taylor, started doing Minnie Mouse's voice in 1986. And Mickey still didn't pop the question. Wayne did the Big Cheese up until his death from diabetes complications in 2009.

Thus enters young Bret Iwan, a greeting card artist and official voice number four. The crazy thing is that Bret had been hired to understudy Wayne as his health declined. Unfortunately, Wayne died before Bret ever had a chance to meet him. Bret did received Russi's blessing though and continues to work with her right up to the present. And since Bret turns the ripe old age of 36 today, I'm guessing he'll be performing M. Mouse for decades to come.