Eleanor Audley

Eleanor Audley (born Eleanor Zellman, November 19, 1905 – November 25, 1991) was an American actress who was a familiar radio and animation voice, in addition to her TV and film roles. She is best remembered on television as Eunice Douglas on Green Acres and, for many, for providing Disney animated features with their most outstanding and memorable villainess voices, most notably two of the most sinister Disney villainesses, Lady Tremaine, Cinderella's evil stepmother from Cinderella (1950), and Maleficent, the evil fairy from Sleeping Beauty (1959).

Birth

Audley was born Eleanor Zellman in New York City, New York on November 19, 1905.

Stage

She made her Broadway debut in the 1926 production of Howdy, King. Her other stage appearances include On Call (1928), Pigeons and People (1933), Thunder on the Left (1933), Kill That Story (1934), Ladies' Money (1934), Susan and God (1937), and In Bed We Cry (1943).

Radio

Beginning as a radio actress, she worked extensively in the 1940s and 50s in Hollywood on such shows as Escape, Suspense, and the radio versions of My Favorite Husband (as mother-in-law, Mrs. Cooper), The Story of Dr. Kildare (as receptionist Molly Byrd), and Father Knows Best (as one of the Anderson family's neighbors). In 1954, she played the stepmother in a re-imagining of the Cinderella story for The Six Shooter starring James Stewart.