Pat Carroll

Intro

Pat Carroll gave Ursula in The Little Mermaid a voice that could sound welcoming and threatening within the same phrase. The animated sea witch became her most widely recognized character, but Carroll had already built a substantial career in television comedy and theatre. Her work ranged from Sid Caesar's sketches to a solo portrayal of Gertrude Stein and the role of Falstaff. That range matters when listening to Ursula: the character's theatrical confidence came from an actor with decades of experience holding an audience through speech, timing and sudden changes of attitude.

Career snapshot

Born in Shreveport, Louisiana, in 1927, Carroll developed a career that crossed stage and television rather than following a single medium. Her Broadway debut in the 1955 revue Catch a Star! brought a Tony nomination the following year. IBDB lists several parts in the revue, including an ingenue, a Southern belle and a mother, reflecting the quick changes expected of a comic performer. On Caesar's Hour she won the 1957 Emmy for supporting actress and received another nomination in 1958. The award record places her achievement firmly in the era of ambitious television sketch comedy.

The entry point

Situation comedy provided another durable part of her screen identity. As Bunny Halper on The Danny Thomas Show, Carroll joined a familiar domestic ensemble; the gallery photograph places her at right beside Marjorie Lord as Kathy Williams. She later played Rita Simon in Getting Together, documented by the separate 1972 ABC portrait. These roles required sustained character relationships rather than a revue's rapid succession of parts. Still later, she appeared as newspaper co-owner Hope Stinson in the reworked Ted Knight Show, where her character's majority ownership created a source of friction with Knight's Henry Rush.

Screen identity and style

Her feature work included Maxine Scott in With Six You Get Eggroll, Howard Morris's 1968 comedy starring Doris Day and Brian Keith. AFI traces the project to an idea by married writers Gwen Bagni and Paul Dubov, who drew on their own experience of combining families. Carroll's character belongs to the supporting network around the central couple, and her expressive publicity portrait here records the film separately from her television work. It is also important to distinguish Carroll from Alice Ghostley, another member of the cast: the two performers have separate roles and separate publicity photographs.

Collaborations and patterns

The solo show Gertrude Stein, Gertrude Stein, Gertrude Stein gave Carroll a sustained dramatic challenge beyond her established comic supporting parts. Written by Marty Martin, the work became a major theatrical achievement for her, earning a 1980 Drama Desk award. Its recorded version won at the 1981 Grammy Awards in the spoken-word, documentary or drama category. The recording award and the stage honor belong to different ceremonies and years. Boston University's collection preserves scripts, correspondence and images associated with her Stein work, showing the substantial preparation behind a performance that depended on one actor's presence.

Era reflection

Classical theatre expanded that work further. Carroll played the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet and Falstaff in The Merry Wives of Windsor at the Shakespeare Theatre at the Folger. The Boston University finding aid includes reviews, photographs and production materials for those roles. Her Broadway appearances later included Mrs. Fisher in The Show Off and the Chorus of Mycenae in Electra. These credits make it misleading to describe her simply as a television comedian who happened to record a cartoon voice. She continued to test her established comic authority against different dramatic forms and different kinds of text.

Legacy and rediscovery

The Little Mermaid arrived in 1989, with Carroll's Ursula opposing Jodi Benson's Ariel. The musical setting by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman gave that antagonism a particularly vivid form in Poor Unfortunate Souls. Carroll later voiced Morgana, Ursula's sister, in The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea; the sequel character should not be confused with Ursula herself. Carroll died on July 30, 2022. Her recorded and filmed work leaves several useful ways back into the career: the ensemble comedy of Caesar's Hour, the concentrated storytelling of Gertrude Stein and the full theatrical flourish of her Disney performances.

Selected screen roles

• Catch a Star!: Broadway revue roles — 1955
• Caesar's Hour: Comedy ensemble — 1956-1957
• The Danny Thomas Show: Bunny Halper — 1961-1964
• With Six You Get Eggroll: Maxine Scott — 1968
• Getting Together: Rita Simon — 1971-1972
• The Little Mermaid: Ursula, voice — 1989
• The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea: Morgana, voice — 2000

A career in pictures

Three distinct publicity photographs document Carroll in television and feature-film comedy.

Getting Together portrait (1972)

Rita Simon

ABC publicity portrait of Carroll.

The Danny Thomas Show publicity (1965)

Bunny Halper

Marjorie Lord as Kathy Williams at left; Carroll as Bunny Halper at right.

With Six You Get Eggroll publicity (1968)

Maxine Scott

Publicity portrait for the Howard Morris film.

Rewatch notes

• She won the 1957 Emmy for Caesar's Hour and was nominated again in 1958.
• The Gertrude Stein recording won at the 1981 Grammy Awards.