Pat Carroll, a longtime comedian on television who won an Emmy for “Caesar’s Hour” and provided Ursula’s voice in “The Little Mermaid,” has passed away. 95 years old.
Carroll passed away on Saturday at her home in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, according to her daughter Kerry Karsian, a casting agent. She wants everyone to “honor her by having a raucous laugh at absolutely anything today (and every day forward) because, in addition to her brilliant talent and love, she leaves my sister Kerry and me with the greatest gift of all, imbuing us with humor and the ability to laugh…even in the saddest of times,” Tara Karsian wrote on Instagram.
In 1927, Carroll was born in Shreveport, Louisiana. She was 5 years old when her family moved to Los Angeles. She played “Hometown Girl” in 1948, her first film role, but she really hit her stride in television. She was a regular on “Make Room for Daddy” with Danny Thomas, a guest star on “The DuPont Show with June Allyson,” and a frequent guest on variety shows like “The Danny Kaye Show,” “The Red Skelton Show,” and “The Carol Burnett Show” before earning an Emmy for her work on the sketch comedy series “Caesar’s Hour” in 1956.
Along with Lesley Ann Warren, she portrayed one of the evil stepsisters in the 1965 television adaptation of “Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella.” The recording of her one-woman show “Gertrude Stein, Gertrude Stein, Gertrude Stein” also earned her a Grammy in 1980.
Disney’s “The Little Mermaid,” which was released in 1989, would introduce her voice to a new generation, who would come to know and love it. She wasn’t the musical duo of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken or directors Ron Clements and John Musker’s first choice for the sea witch’s voice; they reportedly preferred Joan Collins or Bea Arthur. Even before Carroll had the chance to audition, Elaine Stritch had already been cast. sold vehicles.
