Pat Carroll, who voiced Ursula in The Little Mermaid, dies aged 95

Pat Carroll was the voice of Ursula — (Image credit: Getty Images/Disney)

Pat Carroll, who was best known for voicing the Disney villain Ursula in the animated movie The Little Mermaid, has died at the age of 95. She was a Grammy and Emmy award-winning comedy actor and mainstay of American television for decades.

Carroll died on Saturday, 30 July, 2022, of pneumonia at her home in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, her daughter Kerry Karsian told The Hollywood Reporter.

She first came to national attention in the 1952 sketch show The Red Buttons Show, which then transitioned into a sitcom following dwindling ratings. She went on to appear in another sketch series, Caesar's Hour, for which she won an Emmy in 1957. For her broadway debut in 1955, Caroll was nominated for a Tony award in Catch a Star! though remained off stage for over a decade to concentrate on a TV career.

Through the '60s and '70s, Carroll regularly appeared on screen in humorous roles, including parts in The Danny Thomas Show, The Red Skelton Show, Laverne & Shirley. In 1979, she portrayed Gertrude Stein on stage, and her recorded version of the production won the spoken word Grammy in 1980.

She later became known for her voice work, doing the English dub of Granny in My Neighbor Totoro and Queen Hippolyta in the animated Saturday morning Superman series. Her most famous role – and one of her personal favorites – would become Ursula in The Little Mermaid, first voicing the character in the 1989 movie, and returning as the villain in a direct-to-video sequel, a TV series, theme parks rides, and the Kingdom Hearts games.

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