Top 20 Sleeping Beauty facts

#9

Eleanor almost wasn't Maleficent

When the studio was casting, they wanted to bring back Eleanor Audley to be Maleficent. 

Eleanor was previously the voice and model for Lady Tremaine in Cinderella so they thought her voice would be perfect. 

And she was one of Walt's favorite voice actresses to work with. 

However, Eleanor declined playing Maleficent at first, surprising the entire studio. 

As it turned out, she had tuberculosis and didn't wanna use her voice too much. 

But thankfully, she recovered just in time to record the dialogue.