24 Facts About Mae Questel

Mae Questel was best known for providing the voices for the animated characters Betty Boop, Olive Oyl and numerous others.

Mae Questel later performed on Broadway and in films and television, including her role as Aunt Bethany in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.

Nevertheless, at the age of 17, Mae Questel won a talent contest held at the RKO Fordham Theatre in the Bronx by imitating actress and singer Helen Kane.

Mae Questel was signed by an agent and began performing in vaudeville as an impersonator.

Mae Questel was seen by animator Max Fleischer, who was looking for an actress to provide the voice for his Betty Boop character.

Mae Questel began as one of a number of actresses providing the character's voice, but soon took over the role exclusively.

From 1931 until 1939, Mae Questel provided the voice of Betty Boop in more than 50 animated shorts, the longest run for any actress doing that voice.

Mae Questel made her debut with "I Eats Me Spinach" and essentially became the permanent voice until her hiatus to start a family in 1938.

Mae Questel returned as the voice of Olive Oyl in 1944 after the studio reorganized as Famous Studios, Paramount Pictures and had returned to New York, a role in which she would remain until 1962.

Mae Questel filled in for Jack Mercer as the voice of Popeye for a small number of cartoons, made when Mercer was temporarily drawn into war service, alongside Floyd Buckley and Harry Foster Welch.

When Hanna-Barbera began making the All New Popeye cartoons for television in 1978, Mae Questel auditioned for the role of Olive Oyl but lost out to Marilyn Schreffler.

Mae Questel provided the voice of Casper, the Friendly Ghost in Golden Records' Casper the Friendly Ghost and Little Audrey Says in 1962.

Mae Questel voiced Wiggy Rockstone after the original voice actress, Gay Autterson, left the role in 1982.

Mae Questel continued to provide the voices of Betty Boop and Olive Oyl in commercials, television specials and elsewhere for the rest of her life.

In 1935, Mae Questel played the voice of the Woman in the Shoe in the Max Fleischer cartoon, The Kids in the Shoe.

Mae Questel played a number of small parts, including appearing with Rudy Vallee as Betty Boop in the 1931 short Musical Justice and as a nurse in The Musical Doctor in 1932.

In 1973, Mae Questel had a role in the short-lived ABC television sitcom The Corner Bar, but she achieved perhaps her greatest visibility in television commercials, notably playing "Aunt Bluebell" in ads for Scott Towels from 1971 to 1979, and appeared in spots for Playtex, Folger's Coffee and others.

Mae Questel appeared on panel shows and in daytime soap operas.

Mae Questel married Leo Balkin on December 22,1930, and they were divorced prior to 1950.

Mae Questel married Jack E Shelby on November 19,1970; they remained married until his death.

Mae Questel had two sons, Robert Balkin and Richard Balkin.

Mae Questel was a Democrat who supported Adlai Stevenson's campaign during the 1952 presidential election.

Mae Questel died on January 4,1998, from complications related to Alzheimer's disease at the age of 89 in her Manhattan apartment.

Mae Questel was buried in New Montefiore Cemetery in West Babylon, New York.