Verna Felton, Barbara Jo Allen and Barbara Luddy: Disney's Fairy Godmothers

It's time to give some love to the voices of the fairy godmothers: Verna Felton, Barbara Jo Allen and Barbara Luddy, who voiced Flora, Fauna and Merriweather in Sleeping Beauty.  

Verna Felton

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Walt Disney knew immediately what he wanted Cinderella’s fairy godmother to sound like. She “should have a kindly voice with a certain age in it,” but she shouldn’t be “goofy or stupid, but rather…having a wonderful sense of humour.”

Enter Verna Felton, a veteran character actress who’d already appeared in one Disney film (Dumbo). The Fairy Godmother plays a central role in Cinderella, and they needed a voice actress to give her heart and humour.

Later in the decade, Walt would decide that Verna must voice Flora, one of Sleeping Beauty’s fairy godmothers, based on her character description—that she was the dominating, matronly fairy godmother.

Verna never provided live action reference modeling for either character. The Fairy Godmother was based on an animator’s idea of what his own wife might look like in the future (jury’s out on whether it turned out to be an accurate representation); and Verna wasn’t suitably “pudgy” enough to provide reference for Flora.

You’ll recognize Verna’s voice from many Disney animated films of the era. In addition to her roles in Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, she also voiced Dumbo’s mother in Dumbo, The Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland, various voices in Lady and the Tramp and Winifred the Elephant in The Jungle Book, which would end up being her final role.

Verna died the day before Walt Disney, on December 14, 1966.

Barbara Jo Allen

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The sweetest fairy godmother in Sleeping Beauty is hands down the green fairy, Fauna, who only wants to bake Aurora a cake despite her complete ineptness in the kitchen.

Barbara Jo rose to fame on radio, appearing as a character named Vera Vague; and transitioned to film and television for a long career in Hollywood.

Her first Disney role was Fauna in Sleeping Beauty, for which she only provided the voice. Like Verna, she wasn’t “pudgy” enough for the animators’ concepts of the fairy godmothers.

Barbara Jo voiced several characters for Disney following Sleeping Beauty, with her final film role being the scullery maid in The Sword in the Stone in 1963.

Barbara Jo died on September 14, 1974.

Barbara Luddy

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She began her Disney career voicing Lady in Lady and the Tramp and ended it as the matronly Kanga from Winnie the Pooh, but Barbara Luddy’s long voiceover career saw her add her signature rasp to many characters between the 1950s and the 1970s.

Other Disney films she provided voiceover work for include One Hundred and One Dalmatians, Robin Hood, and several Winnie the Pooh features as Kanga.

Barbara died on April 1, 1979.