Ilene Woods, best known to animation fans as the voice of Cinderella, has died, reports D23 [1]. She was 81 years old.
She landed the Cinderella role after recording demo tracks of "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo," "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes" and "So This is Love" for her friends, songwriters Mack David and Jerry Livingston. Walt Disney heard the recordings and hired her to play the title character in CINDERELLA.
Woods would go on to have a long career in television on such shows as THE STEVE ALLEN SHOW, THE GARY MOORE SHOW and ARTHUR GODFREY AND HIS FRIENDS.
She was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire on May 5, 1929. Woods began a radio career at age 11 in her hometown, later moving on to a weekly radio show for ABC Network in NYC.
As part of the WWII effort, she went on tour with United States Air Force Orchestra to help the sale of war bonds. As a result, he was asked to sing for President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Christmas party, which she followed up doing the next year for Harry S. Truman.
Links:
[1] http://d23.disney.go.com/articles/070210_NF_BN_IleneWoods.html