Dawn Greenhalgh, Voice of Queen Celeste in Babar, Dies at 93

Dawn Greenhalgh, a Canadian actress whose career spanned stage, film and television, died at her home in Toronto on November 6. She was 93, her family announced. A celebration of life is being planned.

Greenhalgh voiced Queen Celeste, the wife of Babar the elephant, in the animated series Babar from 1989 to 1991. In 2010 and 2011, she reprised the role in Babar and the Adventures of Badou, an animated follow-up made with computer-generated imagery. The original series aired in more than 150 countries.

Born in Shanghai on September 25, 1933, to British parents, Greenhalgh spent some of her childhood confined in a wartime detention camp while Japan occupied the area. Her family explained that music, theater and dance gave her comfort and a sense of purpose. At 14, she moved to Canada with a guardian and attended Montreal High School.

At 19, Greenhalgh became a founding member of the Stratford Festival in Ontario. She also helped launch Halifax’s Neptune Theatre and Toronto’s Theatre Plus, and studied acting in New York. Her stage work included performances in Stratford Festival productions of All’s Well That Ends Well, Antony and Cleopatra, and Love’s Labour’s Lost.

Her screen credits included The Virgin Suicides and Maps to the Stars. She appeared with her daughter Megan Follows in the 1985 miniseries Anne of Green Gables, playing Mrs. Cadbury. Greenhalgh also had a regular role on the television series Strange Paradise and appeared in several later television programs.

She is survived by four children, including actresses Megan and Samantha Follows, as well as grandchildren and step-grandchildren.