Mae Questel
Petite, with a high-pitched, rounded voice, Mae Questel was the voice behind such cartoon figures as Betty Boop, Olive Oyl and Little Audry. At age 17, the Bronx-born singer-actress won a talent contest mimicking the then-popular baby-voiced entertainer Helen Kane. An agent immediately signed Questel and before long she was appearing on the vaudeville circuit as a singer and impressionist, imitating performers from Fanny Brice to Maurice Chevalier. In 1931, Max Fleischer signed her to provide the vocals for the Kane-inspired cartoon figure Betty Boop. Over an eight year period, Questel provided the sweetly saucy child-like tones for Betty (and the animators incorporated many of Questel's mannerisms) in more than 100 shorts, including "Boop-Oop-a-Doop" (1932), "Snow White" (1933) and the Oscar-nominated "Riding the Rails" (1938). The bob-haired, saucer-eyed Betty Boop became a popular phenomenon, spawning everything from dolls to playing cards to candy to a syndicated comic strip. The provocative character, noted for her short skirts and flirtatious manner, came under fire from women's clubs in the late 1930s. Partly due to that pressure and partly because the series' popularity was waning due to changing tastes, Fleischer ended the Betty Boop shorts in 1939 with "Yip, Yip Yippy!." Beginning in 1933, Fleischer had also tapped Questel to lend her talents to the character of Olive Oyl in the Popeye cartoons, more than 450 of which were produced. (In the series, Questel also gave voice to Swee'pea.) During her long career as a voice actor, she also lent her distinctive abilities to such cartoon figures as Winky Dink, Little Audry and Casper, the Friendly Ghost.
Photos
Mae Questel
Filmography
Movies
Credit | |||||
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No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Betty Boop Adventure Vol. 3 | Unknown (Character) | - | 2014 |
72% |
|
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation | Aunt Bethany (Character) | $70.0M | 1989 |
76% |
|
New York Stories | Mother (Character) | $10.6M | 1989 |
No Score Yet |
|
Hurray for Betty Boop | Unknown (Voice) | - | 1980 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Best of Betty Boop Volume II | Unknown (Voice) | - | 1980 |
No Score Yet |
|
It's Only Money | Cecilia Albright (Character) | - | 1962 |
67% |
|
A Majority of One | Mrs. Esther "Essie" Rubin (Character) | - | 1961 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Double-Cross-Country Race | Olive Oyl (Voice) | - | 1951 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Teacher's Pest |
Junior's Mother / |
- | 1950 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Toys Will Be Toys | Doll Princess (Voice) | - | 1949 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Playful Polar Bears | Baby Polar Bear (Voice) | - | 1938 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | New Shoes | Girl's Shoes (Voice) | - | 1936 |
No Score Yet |
|
Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor | Olive Oyl (Voice) | - | 1936 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Somewhere in Dreamland |
Mother / |
- | 1936 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Adventures of Popeye | Olive Oyl (Voice) | - | 1935 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Snow-White | Betty Boop (Voice) | - | 1933 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Betty Boop's Museum |
Betty Boop / |
- | 1932 |
TV
Credit | ||||
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No Score Yet | No Score Yet | 77 Sunset Strip | Cuddles McGee (Guest Star) | 1962 |