Barbara Luddy was a renowned American actress and vaudeville singer born in 1908 in Great Falls, Montana. This city was named for its proximity to the Great Falls of the Missouri River, a series of five waterfalls located in north-central Montana. Established in 1883 by businessman and politician Paris Gibson, Great Falls became the first city in Montana with its own hydroelectric dam.
Luddy was educated in a convent for Ursulines, a Catholic religious order dedicated to the education of girls. She started performing as a singer in the vaudeville circuit during her childhood and by the late 1920s, she served as an actress in a touring company with fellow vaudevillian Leo Carrillo. Their company toured Australia in 1929, with the Sydney press praising Luddy for her "pert audacity and vivaciousness".
During the 1930s, Luddy began regularly performing as a voice actress in radio shows. From 1936 to 1943, she was part of the main cast in the anthology series "The First Nighter Program", featuring romantic-comedy plots. In 1937, she signed a long-term contract for her exclusive services in this series.
During World War II, Luddy was part of the main cast in the radio soap opera "Lonely Women", voicing Judith Clark, a lovesick secretary. The series originally featured an all-female cast, but male characters were added later.
By the 1950s, Luddy started regularly working as a voice actress for the Walt Disney Animation Studios. Her best-known role was voicing the co-protagonist Lady in the animated romance film "Lady and the Tramp" (1955). She also voiced the heroic fairy Merryweather in "Sleeping Beauty" (1959) and the maternal kangaroo Kanga in the featurettes "Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree" (1966),"Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day" (1968),and "Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too" (1974).
Luddy's voice was also used for Kanga in the feature film "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" (1977). In the 1960s, she started having minor roles in television, appearing in popular series such as the sitcom "Hazel" and the soap opera "Days of Our Lives".
Luddy passed away in April 1979 at the age of 70 due to lung cancer, a month before her 71st birthday. She is still fondly remembered by animation fans for her voice roles, long after her heyday.
