Over the weekend I see that voice actress Lucille Bliss died earlier this month at the age of 96. The NY Times has an obituary here. Bliss voices Crusader Rabbit, one of the wicked stepsisters in CINDERELLA, and many other parts, including her best known role, Smurfette.
In one of my earlier incarnations, I saw Bliss often, and she was a very sweet lady who carried around little Smurf figures and gave them out at times. I still have three that she gave me, although they are currently in the jaws of an alligator head I acquired around the same time. I remember giving her a ride home once after some industry function or another and listening to her tell stories about working on the great cartoons. A very nice and talented lady. I thought of her everyone time I saw the Smurfs, of course, and would check in every once in a while to see that she was still alive and kicking. In 2005 she gave the following interview about Smurfette.
There’s much more video of Bliss in this piece by Mike Rowe. She was definitely one of the grand ladies of voiceovers.
Such a bummer. When I heard the news, I immediately could hear her voice in my head even though I haven’t seen one of her shows in at least a decade if not longer.
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