Voice actress Russi Taylor passed away on July 26. She was 75 years old.
Taylor was a prolific voice actress whose career spanned nearly 40 years, with her first major role being the voice of Strawberry Shortcake in the the short-lived series The World of Strawberry Shortcake, having been the original voice actress of the character and voicing her for six more television specials during the 1980’s. She would go on to voice other major characters through the 1980’s, including Gonzo in Muppet Babies, Pebbles Flinstone in The Flinstones Comedy Hour, and Pac-Baby in Pac-Man.
Though Taylor’s most well-known role would come in 1986, when she inherited the voice of Minnie Mouse. This would be the first time Minnie would have a regular voice since 1952, as the character only appeared in non-speaking roles outside of a sole appearance on a 1974 album in which the Disney characters would recreate A Christmas Carol (which would serve as the basis of the 1983 special Mickey’s A Christmas Carol). Taylor would go on to voice the role until her death.
Taylor was married to Wayne Allwine since 1991 until his own death in 2009. Allwine served as the voice of Mickey Mouse from 1977 to his death, being the longest-serving voice actor to perform the character. Both Allwine and Taylor were named Disney Legends in 2008.
Minnie would not be Taylor’s only contribution to Disney, with her second most prominent role with the company being on the 1987 hit TV series DuckTales, voicing the characters Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Webby, making up the majority of the main cast herself. Taylor would continue to voice those characters as well up until her death. Only a few appearances of the characters between 1987 and 2019 would not feature Taylor as their voice actress, most notably the 2018 reboot of DuckTales.
Taylor’s biggest roles outside of the world of Disney would be on The Simpsons, in which she voiced a variety of supporting characters, most notably as Lisa Simpson’s intellectual rival Martin Prince. Taylor also voiced other classmates of Bart and Lisa Simpsons, including twins Sherri and Terri, Lewis, Wendell, and Uter.
Taylor’s career mostly resided in the world of television, she also has made a small amount of film appearances. Most notably, she made a small appearance as Minnie in the 1988 hit Who Framed Roger Rabbit, starred as all of her DuckTales characters in the 1990 film DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp, and as Otama in the English language dub of the animated film Pom Poko. Her final film appearance was as Martin Prince in 2007’s The Simpsons Movie, with the rest of her career afterwards dedicated to television and video game roles, mainly as her Disney and Simpsons characters.
Minnie would go on to be the final voice appearance by Taylor, with her last appearance being in the Mickey Mouse TV series on the Disney Channel. It’s unknown who will take over for the character, but no one will be as synonymous with the character as Taylor was.
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