Kathryn Beaumont Levine (born 27 June 1938) is a British-American former actress, singer and school teacher. She is best known for voicing Alice in ''

Alice in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatur ...

'' (1951) and

Wendy Darling Wendy Moira Angela Darling is a fictional character and one of the main protagonists of the 1904 play and 1911 novel ''Peter and Wendy'' by J. M. Barrie, as well as in most adaptations in other media. Her exact age is not specified in the origina ...

in ''

Peter Pan Peter Pan is a fictional character created by List of Scottish novelists, Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie. A free-spirited and mischievous young boy who can fly and Puer aeternus, never grows up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending ...

'' (1953), for which she was named a

Disney Legend The Disney Legends Awards is a Hall of Fame program that recognizes individuals who have made an extraordinary and integral contribution to The Walt Disney Company. Established in 1987, the honor was traditionally awarded annually during a speci ...

in 1998.

Early life

Kathryn Beaumont was born to Evelyn and Kenneth Beaumont in London on 27 June 1938. Her mother was a professional dancer, while her father was a singer.

Career

Beaumont made her feature film debut in ''

It Happened One Sunday ''It Happened One Sunday'' is a 1944 British romantic comedy film directed by Karel Lamač and starring Robert Beatty, Barbara White and Marjorie Rhodes. Produced and distributed by Associated British it was shot at Welwyn Studios with sets d ...

'' (1944), which drew interest from

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...

, who offered her a contract. She recalled: "MGM was planning to have films with British characters and British-type stories. However, as ideas come and go, they must have shelved the idea because they brought me over and put me under contract, then nothing happened." In spite of this, she did play small parts in MGM's ''

On an Island with You ''On an Island with You'' is a 1948 musical Technicolor romantic comedy film directed by Richard Thorpe. It stars Esther Williams, Peter Lawford, Ricardo Montalbán, Cyd Charisse, Kathryn Beaumont and Jimmy Durante.Miller, Frank"Articles: On an ...

'' (1948), where she did a

Jimmy Durante James Francis Durante ( , ; February 10, 1893 – January 29, 1980) was an American comedian, actor, singer, vaudevillian, and pianist. His distinctive gravelly speech, Lower East Side accent, comic language-butchery, jazz-influenced song ...

impression in front of Durante's character, ''

The Secret Garden ''The Secret Garden'' is a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett first published in book form in 1911, after serialisation in ''The American Magazine'' (November 1910 – August 1911). Set in England, it is one of Burnett's most popular novels and ...

'' (1949) and ''

Challenge to Lassie ''Challenge to Lassie'' is an American drama directed by Richard Thorpe in Technicolor and released October 31, 1949, by MGM Studios. It was the fifth feature film starring the original Lassie, a collie named Pal, and the fourth and final ''La ...

'' (1949). After Beaumont had relocated to Los Angeles,

Walt Disney Pictures Walt Disney Pictures is an American film production company and subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is owned by The Walt Disney Company. The studio is the flagship producer of live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Studios uni ...

began auditioning young British actresses to portray Alice in their animated version of ''

'' (1951). Beaumont auditioned and received the role, working under voice director

Winston Hibler Winston Murray Hunt Hibler (October 8, 1910 – August 8, 1976) was an American screenwriter, film producer, director and narrator associated with Walt Disney Studios. Biography and career Hibler was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on Octob ...

. Disney subsequently cast her in the voice role of Wendy Darling in their following feature, ''

'' (1953). In addition to providing her voice, Beaumont also served as the performance model for both characters for live-action reference to help the animators. When performing as Wendy, Beaumont was suspended in the air to simulate flight, although Beaumont had a

fear of heights Acrophobia is an extreme or irrational fear or phobia of heights, especially when one is not particularly high up. It belongs to a category of specific phobias, called space and motion discomfort, that share both similar causes and options for ...

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...

personally cast Beaumont after seeing the film, ''On an Island with You''. Beaumont reprised her voice acting role as Alice in two episodes of the animated series ''

Disney's House of Mouse ''Disney's House of Mouse'' (or simply ''House of Mouse'') is an American animated television series produced by Walt Disney Television Animation that originally aired for three seasons on ABC and Toon Disney from January 13, 2001, to its finale ...

'' (2001–2003) and as both Alice and Wendy in the 2002 video game ''

Kingdom Hearts is a series of action role-playing games developed and published by Square Enix (originally by Square (video game company), Square). It is a collaboration between Square Enix and The Walt Disney Company and is under the leadership of Tetsuya ...

''. In 1998, Beaumont was awarded a

award for her voice work on the films ''Alice in Wonderland'' and ''Peter Pan''. In 2005, Beaumont retired from acting; the roles of Alice and Wendy were taken over by

Hynden Walch Hynden Walch is an American actress. She is best known for voicing Starfire in the ''Teen Titans'' franchise and Princess Bubblegum in ''Adventure Time''. She also voiced Penny Sanchez in '' ChalkZone'', Amore and Lockette in the Nickelodeon ve ...

. She made a brief return to voice acting in 2010 when she voiced Kairi's grandmother in ''

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep is an action role-playing video game developed and published by Square Enix in collaboration with Disney Interactive Studios for the PlayStation Portable, serving as the sixth installment in the ''Kingdom Hearts'' series. The game was relea ...

''.Kathryn Beaumont at Behind the Voice Actors
Behind the Voice Actors, Retrieved March 10, 2022

Personal life

After completing ''Peter Pan'', Beaumont graduated from high school and enrolled at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

, where she graduated with a degree in education. Upon graduating from college, Beaumont worked as an

elementary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...

teacher in Los Angeles for 36 years. Beaumont has been married to her husband, Allan Levine, since 1985. As of 2020, she is the last surviving cast member of ''

'' (1944) and ''

'' (1951) .

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Beaumont, Kathryn 1938 births Living people 20th-century English actresses 21st-century English actresses Actresses from London Audiobook narrators English voice actresses English child actresses English child singers English women singers English film actresses English television actresses English video game actresses RCA Victor artists Schoolteachers from California Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract players University of Southern California alumni British emigrants to the United States Disney Legends