Wayne Allwine

Wayne Anthony Allwine (February 7, 1947 – May 18, 2009) was an American voice actor, sound editor and Foley artist. He was best remembered as the third official voice of Mickey Mouse in English (following Walt Disney and Jimmy MacDonald) and the first official casting following the establishment of Disney Character Voices International in 1988. To date, he holds the record for the longest-running voice actor to play Mickey Mouse, having performed the role for 32 years. He was notably married to Russi Taylor, who voiced Minnie Mouse.

Early life
Allwine was born in Glendale, California, on February 7, 1947, to Wayne Harry Allwine (1914-1977) and Mariruth Bandle (1913-2004). He is a graduate of John Burroughs High School, where he was particularly active in the school's musical theater department. Prior to his birth, his father traveled the country as a barbershop quartet singer.

While in high school, he formed his own acoustic music group, The International Singers, which performed in clubs and colleges throughout the state. After graduating, he briefly toured with the instrumental rock band Davie Allan & the Arrows. In addition to playing rhythm guitar, he can also be heard on harmonica and sax mouthpiece on the 1968 track "Cycle-Delic". He later became an accomplished Dixieland jazz drummer, occasionally sitting in with Firehouse Five Plus Two alumni George Probert's Monrovia Old Style Jazz Band.

Career
Allwine's career with Disney began in 1966, when at age 19, he took a job in the mailing room at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank. After a brief stint in the Wardrobe department, he was offered a position in Audio Post Production apprenticing under the studio's original head of sound effects, Jimmy MacDonald.

After working in the sound effects department for seven years, Allwine got a call from Disney that an open audition was taking place for the role of Mickey Mouse in late 1976. After a previous actor failed to show up, Allwine tried out for the role, and ultimately won the part. He became the third official voice of Mickey Mouse in 1977. He replaced his sound effects mentor, Jimmy MacDonald, who in 1947 had taken over from Walt Disney himself. Disney had performed the role since 1928 as well as supplying Mickey's voice for animated portions of the original The Mickey Mouse Club television show (ABC-TV, 1955–1959).

Television audiences first heard Allwine's Mickey during the animated lead-ins for The New Mickey Mouse Club in 1977. He made his theatrical debut in the 1982 re-release of the film Fantasia, for which he re-dubbed Mickey's voice in the famous handshake scene with conductor Leopold Stokowski. His breakout role came the following year, in the 1983 featurette Mickey's Christmas Carol. In addition to voicing the title character, he also voiced a Santa Claus on the street appealing for charity donations at the start of the movie, Moley (who appears with Ratty) "collecting for the poor", and one of the two weasel undertakers in the Christmas future scene.

He also lent his vocal talent to feature films such as The Black Cauldron (1985), The Great Mouse Detective (1986), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), The Prince and the Pauper (1990), Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers (2004), the TV series Mickey Mouse Works (1999–2000), House of Mouse (2001–2003) and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (2006–2012). He provided Mickey's voice in the popular Kingdom Hearts series of video games prior to Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, which was done in collaboration with Japanese video game company Square Enix. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, which was the last game that used his voice (mainly with Mickey as a playable character in Mission Mode), would leave a message in his memory as the game was released in North America several months after his death.

In addition to his voice work, Allwine had a dual career as a sound effects editor and Foley artist for Walt Disney Productions, receiving Sound Department recognition in films like Splash (1984), The Great Mouse Detective (1986) and Three Men and a Baby (1987). He also received sound editor credit in the movies Innerspace (1987), Alien Nation (1988) and Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) for other studios. In 1986, he was awarded a group Primetime Emmy Award for his sound editing contributions to a World War II-focused episode of the Steven Spielberg anthology television series Amazing Stories (1985). The same project earned him his first Golden Reel Award from the Motion Picture Sound Editors society. He received his second for sound editing on The Great Mouse Detective.

Personal life
In 1991, he married Russi Taylor, who voiced Minnie Mouse from 1986 to 2019, and they were named Disney Legends in 2008, they remained married up until his death in 2009. Allwine fathered three biological children and one adopted child from previous marriages.

Death
Allwine died of hypertensive crisis caused by complications from acute diabetes at the age of 62 on May 18, 2009, at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. His prospective understudy, Bret Iwan, assumed the role of voicing Mickey Mouse. Allwine is now interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.