Paige O'Hara
| Paige O'Hara | |
|---|---|
| Born | Donna Paige Helmintoller May 10, 1956 Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actress, singer, voice actress, painter |
| Years active | 1983–present |
| Spouse(s) | Michael Piontek |
| Awards | Disney Legend (2011) |
| Website | www.paigeohara.net |
Donna Paige O'Hara (born Donna Paige Helmintoller; May 10, 1956)[1] is an American actress, singer, and painter. O'Hara began her career as a Broadway actress in 1983 when she portrayed Ellie May Chipley in the musical Showboat. In 1991 she made her motion picture debut in Disney's Beauty and the Beast, in which she voiced the film's heroine, Belle. Following the critical and commercial success of Beauty and the Beast, O'Hara reprised her role as Belle in the film's two direct-to-video followups, Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas and Beauty and the Beast: Belle's Magical World.
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Early life
Donna Paige Helmintoller was born on May 10, 1956 in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and attended Nova High School in Davie, Florida and Parkway Middle School of The Arts which is also in Florida. She performed in shows with the Fort Lauderdale Children's Theatre.
O'Hara began acting at the age of four, attending acting classes in her home state of Florida.[2] It wasn't until she was 12 years old that she developed an interest in singing and enrolled in a performing arts high school.[2] O'Hara cites American actress and singer Judy Garland as one of her idols.[3]
Career
Broadway and stage
O'Hara made her first appearance on the Broadway stage as Ellie May Chipley in the revival of Showboat in 1983 starring Donald O'Connor. She repeated the role for the Houston Grand Opera's 1989 production and continued with them when the show was moved to the Cairo Opera House in Egypt. Continuing her legacy as Ellie, she also sang the part on the 1989 Grammy nominated recording of the musical with Jerry Hadley, Frederica von Stade and Teresa Stratas, conducted by John McGlinn on the Angel EMI label. Her other American stage credits include the title role in The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Broadway and national tour) and Ado Annie in a national tour of Oklahoma directed by William Hammerstein.
Internationally, O'Hara has played the role of Nellie Forbush in South Pacific (Australia).
In April, 2011, O'Hara played the role of Judy Garland in "From Gumm to Garland: JUDY, The Musical" at the Tempe Center for the Arts in Tempe, Arizona.
Transition to film and Beauty and the Beast
A longtime fan of Walt Disney Pictures,[3] O'Hara auditioned for Beauty and the Beast at the age of 30[4] after reading about the film in The New York Times.[2]
O'Hara also starred as Venus in the BBC's recorded broadcast of the live presentation of Kurt Weill's "One Touch of Venus" and in tribute to her Belle character from Beauty and the Beast, she portrayed Angela, a character in a fictional soap opera, for Disney's 2007 live action/traditional 2-D animated movie Enchanted.
For her work as Belle, O'Hara was honored with a Disney Legend Award on August 19, 2011.[5]
As of 2011, O'Hara was replaced as the voice of Belle due to her voice changing significantly over the course of twenty years.[6] However, she still paints Belle for Disney Fine Art and continues to do promotional appearances for Disney.[6][7][8]
References
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- ↑ Photo Flash: Lea Salonga, Anika Noni Rose, Paige O'Hara et al. Honored at D23 Expo
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External links
- Paige O'Hara at the Internet Broadway DatabaseLua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 28: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
- Paige O'Hara at the Internet Movie Database
- Paige O'Hara at the Disney Legends Website
- Paige O'Hara official website
- Q&A With Paige O'Hara
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- Pages using infobox person with unknown parameters
- Articles with hCards
- No local image but image on Wikidata
- 1956 births
- American musical theatre actresses
- 20th-century American painters
- 21st-century American painters
- American people of Irish descent
- American stage actresses
- American video game actresses
- American voice actresses
- Living people
- Musicians from Fort Lauderdale, Florida
- Nova High School alumni
- Actresses from Fort Lauderdale, Florida
