She Played The Original Snow White, But She Was Never Credited For The Role
When she was 18 years old, Adriana Caselotti took on the iconic role of Disney’s original Snow White. The animated feature film was released in 1937 and was a huge hit.
But even though Caselotti was the voice of the princess—an integral part of the film—she was not credited for the role. As a result, her acting career did not take off.
Caselotti was cast as Snow White after her father and voice coach, Guido Caselotti, recommended her for the part, according to her 1997 obituary published in the New York Times.
She was 18 when she got the part, but since the role was supposed to be for a 14-year-old, she said she was 16. At the time, Caselotti didn’t know that she was making a feature film.
“They had told me that it was going to be a little longer than their shorts, which were 10 to 12 minutes,” she said.
“So, I thought it would be 20 minutes long or so. I didn’t realize what had happened until I went to the premiere. I saw all these movie stars—Marlene Dietrich, Carole Lombard, Gary Cooper—everybody was there. I discovered this thing was an hour and 23 minutes.”
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves was the first-ever full-length animated feature film that Disney ever released. Adjusting for inflation, it was actually the highest-grossing animated movie ever made.
Caselotti was paid a total of $970 for her work on the film. The amount would be equivalent to about $19,000 today.
Caselotti and the other voice actors in the movie were not given credit for their roles because Disney wanted to keep up the storybook illusion of the characters being real.
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Unfortunately, this prevented Caselotti from taking on voice roles in other Disney movies. The company wanted her voice to be associated with only Snow White.
Caselotti managed to secure small roles in two other famous films. She was uncredited for those parts as well. In The Wizard of Oz, she sang the line, “Wherefore art thou Romeo?” during the Tin Man’s song.
She was reportedly paid $100. She also made an appearance as a singer in the background during a scene in It’s A Wonderful Life at a bar.
In 1972, Caselotti became involved with Disney once again. She was invited to The Julie Andrews Hour and sang songs from Snow White with Julie Andrews.
In addition, she showed up at promotional events for the film. Finally, in 1994, she was recognized for her role and named one of the Disney Legends at the age of 78.
According to her obituary, Caselotti worked in real estate and was an opera singer. She was married four times and did not have any children. In 1997, she passed away due to cancer at 80 years old.
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