Janet Waldo, the Voice of Judy Jetson, Dies at 96

Janet Waldo, the prolific voice actress best known for her role as The Jetsons’ eldest daughter Judy, has died, her daughter confirmed to ABC News. Waldo was 96.

In addition to her work as the animated teen of the future, Waldo voiced a number of Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters, ranging from Penelope Pitstop to Josie and the Pussycats‘ Josie. Her last credited voice work came in 2000, when she reprised Pitstop in a Wacky Races video game.

Waldo, who passed away on Sunday morning, was diagnosed with a benign but inoperable brain tumor five years ago, says daughter Lucy Lee.

Waldo was born in Yakima, Washington. Her mother, Jane Althea Blodgett, was a singer trained at the Boston Conservatory of Music, and her father, Benjamin Franklin Waldo, was a distant cousin of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Her sister, Elisabeth Waldo (born June 18, 1918), is an authority on pre-Columbian music and an award-winning composer-violinist who appeared in the film Song of Mexico (1945).

Waldo attended the University of Washington, where her performance in a student theatrical garnered her an award and brought her to the attention of Bing Crosby. A Paramount Pictures talent scout, who was with Crosby at the time, signed Waldo for a screen test, which led to a contract with the studio.

Al Feldstein, later the editor of Mad, was a writer-illustrator of the Meet Corliss Archer comic book. Waldo was depicted on the front cover twice, as herself and as Corliss.

Waldo appeared in several dozen films in uncredited bit parts and small roles, although she was the leading lady in three Westerns, two of them starring Tim Holt.

Her big break came in radio with a part on Cecil B. DeMille’s Lux Radio Theater. In her radio career, she lent her voice to many programs, including Edward G. Robinson’s Big Town, The Eddie Bracken Show, Favorite Story, Four Star Playhouse, The Gallant Heart, One Man’s Family, Sears Radio Theater and Stars over Hollywood.

She co-starred with Jimmy Lydon in the CBS situation comedy Young Love (1949–50), and she had recurring roles on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (as teenager Emmy Lou), The Red Skelton Show and People Are Funny. However, it was her eight-year run starring as teenager Corliss Archer on CBS’s Meet Corliss Archer that left a lasting impression, even though Shirley Temple starred in the film adaptations, Kiss and Tell and A Kiss for Corliss. The radio program was the CBS answer to NBC’s popular A Date with Judy. Despite the long run of Meet Corliss Archer, less than 24 episodes are known to exist. Waldo later turned down the offer to portray Corliss in a television adaptation.

In 1948, the Meet Corliss Archer comic book, using Waldo’s likeness, published by Fox Feature Syndicate, appeared for a run of three issues from March to July 1948, using the original scripts.The same year, Waldo married playwright Robert Edwin Lee, the writing partner of Jerome Lawrence. The couple had two children and remained married until his death in 1994.

Waldo made a rare on-screen television appearance when she appeared as Peggy, a teen smitten with Ricky Ricardo on a 1952 episode of I Love Lucy titled “The Young Fans” with Richard Crenna. Ten years later, Waldo again worked with Lucille Ball, this time playing Lucy Carmichael’s sister, Marge, on The Lucy Show. That episode was titled “Lucy’s Sister Pays A Visit”. She also appeared on an episode of The Andy Griffith Show as Amanda. Waldo also reprised the role of Emmy Lou for some early TV episodes of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. Later, she was the female lead opposite Anthony Franciosa in the short-lived sitcom Valentine’s Day (1964).

In television animation, she played Judy Jetson in all versions of the Hanna-Barbera television series The Jetsons. Waldo was the last surviving main cast member of the original The Jetsons series. In 1964–66, she took over the role of Pearl Slaghoople on The Flintstones, which was originally played by Verna Felton. Waldo reprised Mrs. Slaghoople on the Flintstones TV films I Yabba-Dabba Do! and Hollyrock-a-Bye Baby in the 1990s.

She later provided the voices for Nancy in Shazzan, Granny Sweet in The Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel Show, Josie in Josie and the Pussycats and Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space, Penelope Pitstop in both Wacky Races and The Perils of Penelope Pitstop. She later guest starred in Thundarr the Barbarian as Circe in the episode “Island of the Body Snatchers”.

Further guest starring roles include Beth Crane, a descendant of Ichabod Crane, in the episode “The Headless Horseman of Halloween” from  The Scooby-Doo Show in 1976. She voiced Morticia Addams in the short-lived 1973 cartoon series adaptation of The Addams Family. Waldo was the voice of Princess and Susan in the English-language version of Kagaku ninja tai Gatchaman, known as Battle of the Planets, and Hogatha in The Smurfs.

In 1990, shortly after completing her role as Judy Jetson in Jetsons: The Movie, she was abruptly replaced with pop star Tiffany. The executive decision of Universal Pictures caused casting director Andrea Romano to say it was “a huge mistake on so many levels” and ask that her name to be removed from the credits. Romano received volumes of hate mail despite her stance on the casting change. Voice director Gordon Hunt reportedly asked Tiffany to sound more like Waldo.

According to Iwao Takamoto by the time of the film’s release, Tiffany’s fame had waned. He quipped, “The punch line, of course, is that fifteen years after the fact, Janet Waldo is still working while for most people, saying the name Tiffany automatically brings to mind a lamp”.

Ultimately, Waldo did patch things up with Hanna-Barbera and continued acting on their television series. The movie version of The Jetsons was a box-office flop and a critical failure with most of the negative reviews directed at Tiffany’s acting and the replacement of the original voice of Judy Jetson.

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