Mae Questel born Mae Kwestel in Bronx, New York 1908 was truly a woman of a thousand voices, and the world would get to hear one of them in 1931 for the first time, the year she lent her dulcets to the character that she was customized for - Betty Boop. And although Fleischer was notorious for hiring a rotation of actresses to provide their voices for the near two-hundred Betty Boop animated shorts, there was nary a one that had a patch on Questel's vocal talent and Mae would go on to make Fleischer studio history as their most prolific voice-over artist. Revered for her ability to parrot just about any and everybody, Questel's voice was in demand and never out of vogue for most of her eighty-nine years on earth. Her signature sounds would give their respective characters iconic status. And Lady Questel not only voiced Popeye's skinny sweetheart Olive Oyl and sprog Swee'Pea, she only just happened to fill in a day or two for colleague Jack Mercer and give some serious lip service to the spinach ingesting protagonist Popeye herself. And would you believe it if I told ya Popeye's nephews voices were down to Questel as well?
And double-acts were certainly par for the Questel course, as Mae would supply the voice for both Casper and Wendy of Casper The Friendly Ghost fame in addendum to a score of other characters of the series. Color Classics would rely on the talented actress's tones for their short The Woman in the Shoe and Little Bo Peep. And the novelty never waned for Noveltoons not with Questel breathing life into Little Audrey and Little Lulu too.
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| Answers to the Questels |
Mae was a vocalist, comedienne and thespian of the pedigree sort, a Columbia drama school alum in spite of the adversity she was privy to from her disapproving, pious parents who earlier would guilt her into signing herself out of New York's Theatre Guild School - the budding actress had a determinant spirit and in the end pursued her passion and got a leg in Vaudeville. By 1925 she secured the reputation 'Mae Questel, Personality Singer of Personality Songs' And astute that title was - she certainly was never anemic in the personality department.
Late in life Questel starred in Woody Allen's installment of the anthology New York Stories (1989) as the memorable 'Jewish Mama from Hell, and in the same year she portrayed Aunt Bethany in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. In January of 1998 after a long battle with Alzheimer's Questel departed our good earth.