Pat Carroll: Disney Pays Tribute to Voice of Ursula in The Little Mermaid

By Cameron Bonomolo

Pat Carroll will always be part of Disney's world. Walt Disney Animation Studios has paid tribute to the stage and screen star best known as the voice of the villainous sea witch Ursula in The Little Mermaid, who died on July 30 at the age of 95. In a statement released on the company's social media Tuesday, Disney said it was "saddened" by the passing of the prolific voice actor with a nod to "Poor Unfortunate Souls," the iconic Disney villain song performed by Carroll in the 1989 animated musical. 

"We are saddened by the passing of the great Pat Carroll, who voiced the villainous and scheming sea witch, Ursula, in The Little Mermaid, and gave attitude and theatricality to the character," Disney's statement reads. "We are 'fortunate' for her contribution." 

Carroll reprised the Ursula role in the Little Mermaid animated prequel television series and voiced Ursula's sister, Morgana, in the 2000 straight-to-video sequel The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea. As one of the most prominent Disney Villains, Carroll voiced the character in multiple video games, including the popular Kingdom Hearts series, as well as the animated show House of Mouse and the direct-to-video spinoff movie Mickey's House of Villains. She would portray the sea witch a final time in the 2020 short series The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse. 

Along with her role as Ursula, Carroll voiced Kookoo the Gorilla in the '90s cartoon Chip 'n' Dale: Rescue Rangers and Old Lady Crowley in Disney's Tangled spinoff series, Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure. An Emmy-winning television mainstay whose career spanned 70 years, Carroll was a veteran of stage and screen, appearing on such TV series as Busting Loose, The Red Skelton Hour, Getting Together, and Caesar's Hour. 

The Little Mermaid directors John Musker and Ron Clements auditioned several actresses for the sea witch they envisioned possessing "a Bea Arthur-type basso voice," ultimately casting Broadway veteran Elaine Stritch in the role. But after Stritch clashed creatively with lyricist Howard Ashman, who wrote the song with composer Alan Menken, the filmmakers recast the role with Carroll. 

"After I read the script, I thought, 'Oh, this is going to be so wonderful … and then, I heard the music and thought, 'Oh my God, that's like a Broadway score,'" she said in Allan Neuwirth's 2003 book Makin' Toons: Inside the Most Popular Animated TV Shows and Movies (via Jim Hill Media). 

Actresses to audition for the role included Nancy Marchand, Charlotte Rae, and Roseanne Barr. As told by Carroll, she didn't expect to land the part of the diva sea witch.

"I went out to the studio, and looked around the room at all of us ladies … There were ladies there I recognized from film, there were ladies that I recognized from television," Carroll recalled. "[This] was a highly sought-after job. And in New York, they were doing the same thing. So I knew I was one of many [auditioning] … This was not, 'Oh, we must get Pat Carroll.'" 

After hitting it off with Ashman — "I got more about that character from Howard singing that song than from anything else," she said in the book — Carroll saw Ursula as an "ex-Shakespearean actress who now sold cars." 

Carroll went on to tell Neuwirth that her role as Ursula in The Little Mermaid is "the one thing in my life that I'm probably most proud of."

"I don't even care if, after I'm gone, the only thing that I'm associated with is Ursula," Carroll said in 2003. "That's okay with me, because that's a pretty wonderful character and a pretty marvelous film to be remembered by."

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