Cause of death Lung Cancer Name Barbara Luddy Years active 1925-1977 | Occupation Actress Resting place Cremated Role Actress | |
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Known for Original voice of Kanga from the 1960s Winnie The Pooh film series, original voice of Lady in Lady and the Tramp, and Merryweather in Sleeping Beauty Movies Lady and the Tramp, Sleeping Beauty, The Many Adventures of Winnie, One Hundred and One, Robin Hood Similar People Verna Felton, Bill Thompson, Junius Matthews, Clyde Geronimi, Ralph Wright | ||
Barbara Luddy (May 25, 1908 – April 1, 1979) was an American actress from Great Falls, Montana. Her film career began with silent pictures in the 1920s, during which time she was also a prolific radio performer.
Contents
- Sleeping beauty mary costa bill shirley eleanor audley verna felton barbara luddy
- Biography
- Stage
- Radio
- Film
- Television
- Filmography
- References
Sleeping beauty mary costa bill shirley eleanor audley verna felton barbara luddy
Biography
Luddy was the daughter of Will and Molly Luddy of Helena, Montana. She sang in vaudeville as a child. She attended Ursuline Convent in Great Falls, Montana. On September 18, 1942, Luddy married R. Ned LeFevre, an actor and announcer, in Winnetka, Illinois.
Luddy died in Los Angeles, California, in 1979 age 70 from lung cancer.
Stage
In 1929, Luddy toured with Leo Carrillo in Australia as part of a touring company that presented the play Lombardi, Ltd. A review in the Sydney Morning Herald cited Luddy's work portraying a mannequin as "a role in which Miss Barbara Luddy made a great hit by her pert audacity and vivaciousness."
Radio
Luddy was a member of the dramatic cast of the Chicago Theater of the Air. One of Luddy's better known roles on radio was being a regular performer on The First Nighter Program from 1936 until the series ended in 1953.:118 In 1937, she and fellow First Nighter actor Les Tremayne set what a contemporary newspaper article called "a precedent ... when these signed long term contracts calling for their exclusive services" on the program."
She also played Veronica Gunn in the comedy Great Gunns.:138 In soap operas, she played Judith Clark in Lonely Women:205-206 Carol Evans Martin in The Road of Life,:285 and Janet Munson in Woman in White.
Film
Luddy is perhaps best remembered for her voice work in Disney animated films such as Lady and the Tramp (in which she played the titular Lady), Sleeping Beauty, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, Robin Hood and the Winnie-the-Pooh featurettes including Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree, Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day, and Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too, all of which were edited into the composite feature The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. Her other film credits include Terrified (1962) and the TV film Lost Flight (1969).
Television
Luddy guest starred in episodes of such television programs as Hazel, Dragnet, Adam-12, and Kolchak: The Night Stalker.