10 Fascinating Facts About Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs

Believe it or not there was only one voice actress for Queen Grimhilde, both in original form and her old hag transformation. Lucille La Verne was a theatre actress who toured the US in her youth playing Juliet in Romeo & Juliet, and Lady Macbeth in “The Scottish Play” and before making her Broadway debut in 1888 and moving onto film in 1915 with a role in James Young’s Over Night.

She performed in bit-parts and starring roles in other films, usually as evil and bitter women in the early years of colour cinema, including the Academy Award nominated A Tale of Two Cities in 1935 as The Vengeance.

Lucille had previously been involved with Disney animations with her role in the Babes in the Woods short film as, funnily enough, the Witch. Her role in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was her final acting role before her death from cancer in 1945 but made the most of the part and became one of the most iconic villains in the entire Disney library, creating an intimidating and overconfident Queen who will stop at nothing to kill Snow White to become the fairest in the land, including replacing her perceived beauty with ugliness.

Her transformation from glamourous Queen to feeble old woman remains terrifying for any audience, let alone the intended demographic of small children. And her ultimate reveal upon the words “It’s a marvellous disguise” remains iconic, in no small part due to Lucille’s excellent vocal performance. But how did the then-65-year-old La Verne achieve this?

It wasn’t through intensive training or drawing upon her years of experience. It was as simple as taking out her false teeth and speaking her lines with bare-gums. Lovely.