Ilene Woods: Difference between revisions
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==Early life== |
==Early life== |
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Jacqueline Ruth Woods was born on Sunday, May 5, 1929. Woods' mother worked behind the scenes of films, taking Woods with her. As a little girl, Woods dreamed about becoming a schoolteacher, but her mother planned to make her a star instead. Woods started acting at the age of two. At the age of 15, Woods was hired, along with Bob Johnstone, by Paul Whiteman to sing on his summer 1944 replacement show, "The Philco Hall of Fame" on the [[NBC Blue Network]] (which later became [[Citadel Media|ABC Radio]]). The network quickly added her own radio program during that same summer, ''The Ilene Woods Show''. The entire show was 15 minutes of music, broadcast three days per week. Many songwriters came on the show to present their music; this is how she became friends with [[Mack David]] and [[Jerry Livingston]]. She then moved to California.<ref>{{cite news |url= http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Movies/07/02/cinderella.woods.obit/index.html?section=cnn_latest |title=Ilene Woods, voice of Disney's Cinderella, dead at 81 |accessdate=May 2, 2011 |publisher= CNN.com | date=July 2, 2010}}</ref> |
Jacqueline Ruth "Ilene" Woods was born on Sunday, May 5, 1929. Woods' mother worked behind the scenes of films, taking Woods with her. As a little girl, Woods dreamed about becoming a schoolteacher, but her mother planned to make her a star instead. Woods started acting at the age of two. At the age of 15, Woods was hired, along with Bob Johnstone, by Paul Whiteman to sing on his summer 1944 replacement show, "The Philco Hall of Fame" on the [[NBC Blue Network]] (which later became [[Citadel Media|ABC Radio]]). The network quickly added her own radio program during that same summer, ''The Ilene Woods Show''. The entire show was 15 minutes of music, broadcast three days per week. Many songwriters came on the show to present their music; this is how she became friends with [[Mack David]] and [[Jerry Livingston]]. She then moved to California.<ref>{{cite news |url= http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Movies/07/02/cinderella.woods.obit/index.html?section=cnn_latest |title=Ilene Woods, voice of Disney's Cinderella, dead at 81 |accessdate=May 2, 2011 |publisher= CNN.com | date=July 2, 2010}}</ref> |
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==Career== |
==Career== |
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Revision as of 21:46, 9 May 2017
Ilene Woods | |
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| File:Ilene Woods.jpg Woods 1960 Publicity Shot | |
| Born | Jacqueline Ruth Woods May 5, 1929 |
| Status | Deceased |
| Died | July 1, 2010 (aged 81) |
| Cause of death | Complications from Alzheimer's disease |
| Resting place | Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills) |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation(s) | Actress, singer |
| Years active | 1941–1985 |
| Notable work | Original voice of Princess Cinderella in Disney's Cinderella (1950) |
| Spouse(s) | Stephen Steck, Jr. (m. 1946–?; divorced) Ed Shaughnessy (m. 1963–2010; her death) |
| Children | With Steck: Stephanie Joan Steck (b. 1947) <br. With Shaughnessy: James Kenneth Shaughnessy (b. 1966; died 1984) Daniel Shaughnessy (b. 1988) |
| Awards | Disney Legend (2003) |
Jacqueline Ruth "Ilene" Woods- Steck- Shaughnessy (May 5, 1929 – July 1, 2010) was an American actress and singer. Woods was the original voice of the title character of the Walt Disney animated feature Cinderella, for which she was named a Disney Legend in 2003.
Early life
Jacqueline Ruth "Ilene" Woods was born on Sunday, May 5, 1929. Woods' mother worked behind the scenes of films, taking Woods with her. As a little girl, Woods dreamed about becoming a schoolteacher, but her mother planned to make her a star instead. Woods started acting at the age of two. At the age of 15, Woods was hired, along with Bob Johnstone, by Paul Whiteman to sing on his summer 1944 replacement show, "The Philco Hall of Fame" on the NBC Blue Network (which later became ABC Radio). The network quickly added her own radio program during that same summer, The Ilene Woods Show. The entire show was 15 minutes of music, broadcast three days per week. Many songwriters came on the show to present their music; this is how she became friends with Mack David and Jerry Livingston. She then moved to California.[1]
Career
In 1948, two of her songwriter friends, Mack David and Jerry Livingston, called Woods to record "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo", "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes", and "So This is Love".[2] Soon, the songs were presented to Walt Disney so that they could be used in the English version of Cinderella. Walt Disney heard the demo recordings, and two days later asked Ilene to voice the star role of Cinderella. She gladly accepted the role, surprised that she had won against more than 300 others who had auditioned. She said in an interview for Classicfilm, "Seeing it [the film] in its new form was breathtaking for me. It's so beautiful. The color is magnificent, it just took my breath away, it was so wonderful. I sort of forget when I'm watching the movie that I had anything to do with it. Yet, it brings back so many beautiful memories of working with the wonderful artists and working with Walt mostly. It brings back wonderful, wonderful memories." Woods later revealed in a 1995 interview, by the time of the premiere of the film, she had taken her daughter Stephanie (who was a three-year-old toddler at the time) to see the movie with her, and when the movie came on, she screamed excitedly, "My mommy is Cinderella!", and two elderly women sitting next to each other, said, "Well, isn't that sweet?" and "She thinks her mother is Cinderella", not knowing that Stephanie was actually Woods' daughter. [2] To promote Cinderella, Woods voiced Snow White in the 1949 Disney audiobook release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.[citation needed] Woods sang for President Franklin D. Roosevelt at his home in Hyde Park. She also sang at the White House for President Truman, after singing for the soldiers and sailors of war.[3] Woods retired from show business in 1972, but she continued to appear at occasional autograph shows.[4]
Later years and death
She married the first time at the age of 17 to Stephen Steck, Jr. and bore him a daughter, Stephanie, Wednesday, May 14, 1947. After a divorce, she married The Tonight Show drummer Ed Shaughnessy in 1963. Woods bore him two sons, James on Monday, April 4, 1966, and Daniel, on Tuesday, September 24, 1968. Woods spent her later years as a spokeswoman for United Cerebral Palsy telethons.[4]
When Disney began releasing videocassette versions of its animated films, Woods was one of at least three actresses to file lawsuits over royalties for their performances; at the time of Woods' December 1990 filing, Peggy Lee of Lady and the Tramp (1955) had won her lawsuit the previous April and a 1989 suit by Mary Costa of Sleeping Beauty (1959) was still pending.[5] Voice actress Jennifer Hale replaced Woods as the current voice of Cinderella since the direct-to-video sequels. In 2003, Woods was awarded a Disney Legend award for her voicework on the film Cinderella. One of her last appearances was playing a night nurse in the Touched by an Angel episode "Cassie's Choice."
Suffering from Alzheimer's disease in a nursing home at Canoga Park, Woods didn't remember that she voiced Cinderella but was mostly comforted by the film's song "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes" and the nurses played it for her as often as possible, realizing she remembered the song. She eventually died on Thursday, July 1, 2010, Ed Shaughnessy told the Los Angeles Times.[6] In addition to her husband of 47 years, she was survived by their son Daniel, her daughter Stephanie from her first marriage, and three grandchildren. Her other son James preceded her in death from a car accident in 1984 at the age of 18. Despite no service being held, her interment is located at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills.[4]
Discography
- Walt Disney's Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs (1949, RCA/Camden)
- "It's Late", Jubilee Records JGM 1046, lp, mono
References
- ^ "Ilene Woods, voice of Disney's Cinderella, dead at 81". CNN.com. July 2, 2010. Retrieved May 2, 2011.
- ^ a b "Ilene Woods, the Voice of Cinderella, Passes Away at 81". Disneyorama.com. Retrieved July 2, 2010.
- ^ "Disney Legends – Ilene Woods". D23.com. Retrieved October 2, 2013.
- ^ a b c "Ilene Woods (1929–2010)". Find a Grave. July 3, 2010. Retrieved October 2, 2013.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ Los Angeles Times News Service. "'Cinderella' files lawsuit against Disney," The New Mexican (Santa Fe, New Mexico), December 28, 1990, page A-3.
- ^ McLellan, Dennis (July 3, 2010). "Ilene Woods dies at 81; voice of Disney's Cinderella". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 14, 2014.
{{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help)
