Disney Women: 27 Actresses Who Have Been Featured in Disney’s Movies

In 1950, Treasure’s Island was Disney’s first completely live-action film. And many others would follow, mostly adventure films, Westerns, and comedies. Of course, these were family-oriented movies and “clean entertainment” was the watchword. When selecting actors and actresses to work with him, Disney was smart enough to use young talents and veteran stars alike. Sometimes, animals (such as dogs, cats, horses, etc.) co-starred with humans.

Here’s a list of 27 actresses who have been featured in Disney’s movies. The deadline is Walt Disney’s death, on the 15th of December 1966. The Disney films in which these 27 stars appeared were released before that date. However, some of these actresses have worked for the Disney studios both before and after Walt’s death.

Julie Andrews (1935) won a best actress Academy Award for her film debut in Walt Disney’s Mary Poppins (1964). Her third film, The Sound of Music (1965), was also a huge box office hit for 20th Century Fox. Some fifteen years later, she won praise for her portrayal in Victor/Victoria (1982). Later in her career, she came back to the Disney studios for The Princess Diaries (2001) and The Princess Diaries II (2004). In 2003, she also appeared in two episodes of the TV series The World of Disney.

Joanne Dru (1922-1996) was a John Ford heroine in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) and Wagon Master (1950). Among her other westerns are Red River (1948), directed by Howard Hawks, Vengeance Valley (1951), The Siege at Red River (1954) or Drango (1957). She was also Fess Parker’s love interest in Disney’s Light in the Forest (1958). During her career, she played other kinds of roles, most notably in All the King’s Men (1949), which won a Best Picture Oscar. On the campy side, she was a secretary secretly in love with her boss, Liberace, in Sincerely Yours (1955), the movie which failed to make a movie star of this flamboyant and hugely popular pianist.

Under contract with Disney, Annette Funicello (1942-2013) became one of the most renowned performers of the TV program The Mickey Mouse Club from 1955 to 1958. The Disney studios cashed on her popularity by featuring her on the big screen in four films: The Shaggy Dog (1959), Babes in Toyland (1961), The Misadventures of Merlin Jones (1964), and The Monkey’s Uncle (1965). At the same time, she continued her TV career, for example in The Horsemasters (1961) and several episodes of Zorro. Annette Funicello was also famous for the teen-oriented beach movies she made for the A.I.P. Company such as Beach Party (1963), Muscle Beach Party (1964), or Beach Blanket Bingo (1965).

Jean Hagen (1923-1977) was a versatile star, equally good in the classic Film Noir The Asphalt Jungle (1950) and the famous musical Singin’ in the Rain (1952). The Disney studios featured her in The Shaggy Dog (1959), in which she played Fred MacMurray’s wife.

For TV audiences, the name of Susan Hampshire (1937) will forever be associated with the hugely popular BBC series The Forsyte Saga (1967), as the spoiled and wayward Fleur. On the big screen, she played alongside Orson Welles in Belgian director Harry Kümel’s Malpertuis (1971), based on a Jean Ray fantasy novel, and she notably portrayed the famous wildlife activist Joy Adamson in Living Free (1972). She also starred in The Three Lives of Tomasina (1963) and The Fighting Prince of Donegal (1966), two Disney features filmed in the U.K.