Mary Costa

Her parents were John (5 Feb 1875-13 Dec 1947) and Hazel (17 Mar 1892-14 Mar 1993).

Of Italian descent, Costa was raised in a Baptist household and sang Sunday school solos at the age of six.

At Knoxville High School (Tennessee), she sang in the chorus.

When she was in her early teens, her family relocated to Los Angeles, California, where she completed high school and won a Music Sorority Award as the outstanding voice among Southern California high school seniors.

Following high school, she entered the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music to study with famed maestro Gaston Usigli.

Mary Costa (born April 5, 1930) is an American retired actress and singer.

Between 1948 and 1951, she appeared with Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy on the Bergen radio show.

She also sang with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in concerts at UCLA, and made numerous commercials for Lux Radio Theatre.

She continues to do promotional appearances for Disney, most recently for the Blu-ray release of Sleeping Beauty and the 50th anniversary of the film.

In 1952, after meeting people at a party with her future husband, director Frank Tashlin, she auditioned for the part of Disney's Princess Aurora, the Sleeping Beauty, in Disney's Sleeping Beauty (1959).

Walt Disney called her personally within hours of the audition to inform her that the part was hers.

Mary married cartoonist and screenwriter Frank Tashlin in 1953.

Additional movie credits include The Big Caper (1957) and Marry Me Again (1953).

In 1958, Costa was called upon to substitute for Elisabeth Schwarzkopf at a gala concert in the Hollywood Bowl, conducted by Carmen Dragon.

Thanks to glowing reviews from that performance, she was invited to sing the lead in her first fully staged operatic production, The Bartered Bride, produced by the renowned German producer, Carl Ebert, for the Los Angeles Guild Opera.

Ebert later requested she appear at the Glyndebourne Festival, where she debuted.

Her most notable film credit is providing the voice of Princess Aurora in the 1959 Disney animated film Sleeping Beauty.

Costa went on to perform in 44 operatic roles on stages throughout the world, including Jules Massenet's Manon at the Metropolitan Opera, and Violetta in La traviata at the Royal Opera House in London and the Bolshoi in Moscow, and Cunegonde in the 1959 London premiere of Leonard Bernstein's Candide.

In 1961, for RCA, she recorded Musetta in La bohème, opposite Anna Moffo and Richard Tucker, with the Rome Opera House Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Erich Leinsdorf.

Among roles which she sang for the San Francisco Opera, she was Tytania in the American premiere of Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream (1961), Ninette in the world premiere of Norman Dello Joio's Blood Moon (1961), and Anne Truelove in the San Francisco premiere of Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress.

Jacqueline Kennedy asked her to sing at a memorial service for her husband, U.S. President John F. Kennedy, from the Los Angeles Sports Arena in 1963.

At the memorial concert, Costa sang "Libera Me" from Giuseppe Verdi's Requiem under the baton of conductor Zubin Mehta.

She made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Violetta in La traviata on January 6, 1964.

Costa impressed television audiences throughout her career with guest appearances on many shows, such as Bing Crosby's Christmas Show on NBC-TV.

They divorced in 1966.

She appeared with Crosby and Sergio Franchi on The Hollywood Palace in 1970.

She also appeared on Frank Sinatra's Woman of the Year Timex Special for NBC, where, with others, she was honored as one of the Women of the Year.

She sang for the inaugural concert of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 1971.

In 1972, she starred in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer feature The Great Waltz, depicting the life of Johann Strauss II.

In 1973, Sammy Davis Jr. asked her to appear on his first NBC Follies, in which she performed a blues selection with Davis.

In 1989, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Licia Albanese Puccini Foundation.

When Disney began releasing videocassette versions of its animated films, Costa was one of three actresses to file lawsuits over royalties for their performances; at the time of Costa's 1989 filing, Peggy Lee of Lady and the Tramp (1955) later won her lawsuit in April 1990 and Ilene Woods of Cinderella (1950) filed hers in December 1990.

She is the last surviving voice actress of the three Disney Princesses created in Walt Disney's lifetime and was named a Disney Legend in 1999.

In November 1999, she received the Disney Legends Award, and her handprints are now a permanent part of the Disney Legends Plaza at the entrance to Disney Studios.

In 2000 she was selected as the Tennessee Woman of Distinction by the American Lung Association.

Voice actress Jennifer Hale replaced Costa as the voice of Aurora in 2001.

Having retired from acting in 2014, Costa has dedicated her later years to inspiring children and teenagers, giving motivational talks at schools and colleges across the country.

She is also a celebrity endorser for child abuse prevention.

She is a recipient of the 2020 National Medal of Arts.

Mary Costa was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, where she lived for much of her childhood.