Kathryn Beaumont

Kathryn Beaumont Levine (born 27 June 1938) is a British actress. She is best known for voicing Alice in Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Wendy Darling in Peter Pan (1953), for which she was named a Disney Legend in 1998.

Early life
Kathryn Beaumont was born to Evelyn and Kenneth Beaumont in London, England on 27 June 1938. Evelyn was a professional dancer, while Kenneth was a singer.

Beaumont was an infant when World War II began. Though authorities in war-torn England urged Evelyn to send her daughter to safety on the SS Athenia, Evelyn refused. Authorities were very upset at first, but when the ship sank, they "ceased to scold" her for her decision. However, after frequent bombing raids - and witnessing the death of a close friend - Evelyn and Kathryn moved to the safer, smaller area of Bangor, Wales. When the war ended in 1945, all three of the Beaumonts moved back to London.

Beaumont's first experience with acting came when Evelyn enrolled her in school "when she was still very small." There, she played in a school pantomime and later in a play. After watching Beaumont perform, her teacher told her mother that she had a talent for acting.

Career
Beaumont made her feature film debut in It Happened One Sunday (1944), which drew interest from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, who offered her a contract. She recalled: "MGM was planning to have films with British characters and British-type stories. However, as ideas come and go, they must have shelved the idea because they brought me over and put me under contract, then nothing happened." In spite of this, she did play small parts in MGM's On an Island with You (1948), where she did a Jimmy Durante impression in front of Durante's character, a non-speaking, uncredited role in The Secret Garden (1949) and another uncredited role in Challenge to Lassie (1949), though she did appear on one of its film posters.

After Beaumont had relocated to Los Angeles, Walt Disney Pictures began auditioning young British actresses to portray Alice in their animated version of Alice in Wonderland (1951). Beaumont auditioned three times and received the role, working under voice director Winston Hibler. While filming Alice in Wonderland, Beaumont's mother and tutor stayed on set with her. Though she worked four hours a day, she still studied three. After filming finished, she went on a promotional tour, which included several on-screen appearances with Walt Disney.

Disney subsequently cast her in the voice role of Wendy Darling in their following feature, Peter Pan (1953). In addition to providing her voice, Beaumont also served as the performance model for both characters for live-action reference to help the animators. When performing as Wendy, Beaumont was suspended in the air to simulate flight, although she had a fear of heights. When asked how she overcame her fear of heights, Beaumont answered, "[I] gritted my teeth! That’s about all you can do. I thought, ‘Oh, well, I have to do what I have to do.’ So you grit your teeth and you do it." Walt Disney personally cast Beaumont in the role of Wendy after seeing the film, On an Island with You.

Beaumont reprised her voice acting role as Alice in two episodes of the animated series House of Mouse (2001–2003) and as both Alice and Wendy in the 2002 video game Kingdom Hearts. In 1998, Beaumont was awarded a Disney Legend award for her voice work on the films Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan.

In 2005, Beaumont retired from acting; the roles of Alice and Wendy were taken over by Hynden Walch. She made a brief return to voice acting in 2010 when she voiced Kairi's grandmother in Disney's Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep. In 2023, she once again returned to voice acting by guest starring as the original Alice in season 2 of Alice's Wonderland Bakery.

Personal life
After completing Peter Pan, Beaumont enrolled in high school, where she joined a drill team and ran for a position in student government. After graduating, Beaumont enrolled at the University of Southern California, where she graduated with a degree in education. Upon graduating from college, Beaumont worked as an elementary school teacher in Los Angeles for 36 years.

Beaumont has been married to her husband, Allan Levine, since 1985. She never had children.

As of 2024, she is the last surviving cast member of It Happened One Sunday (1944), and Alice in Wonderland (1951).