Veteran character actor and voiceover artist Lucille Bliss has passed away at the age of 96. She died on Thursday, November 8th.
A native of New York, Bliss lived in both San Francisco and Los Angeles throughout her career. Her first professional voiceover job was playing wicked stepsister Anastasia in Walt Disney’s classic 1950 feature film, Cinderella.
She went on to play Auntie Lou on ABC/KRON-TV’s Birthday Party Show and have a long career in commercials and animated cartoons. Bliss was the original voice of Crusader Rabbit, the voice of the Kanine Krunchies jingle in 101 Dalmations, Miss Bitters in Invader Zim, and literally played hundreds of other roles.
She will likely be best remembered for playing spunky Smurfette on The Smurfs, a hugely successful animated series that ran on Saturday mornings on NBC for nine seasons.
Here’s a clip of an extended interview with Bliss in which she discusses her work on Smurfette.
Visit Mark Evanier’s blog for his personal recollections.
What do you think? How will you best remember the work of Lucille Bliss — as Smurfette or one of her other characters?
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