A very familiar voice has been silenced. You may not recognize the name Wayne Allwine, but for over 30 years he’s been the voice and heart behind Walt Disney’s most famous creation, Mickey Mouse. On May 18th, he passed away at the age of 62 with his wife, who is coincidentally the current voice of Minnie Mouse, by his side. His voice can be heard in such beloved films as "Mickey's Christmas Carol" and "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" and has recently reached out to the next generation of Mickey fans through the Disney Channel preschool show "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" and the "Kingdom Hearts" video games, not to mention his presence in the various Disney theme parks and traveling shows. For more information about his life, click here.My initial reaction to hearing the news was shock. It's hard to imagine the prospect of a new Mickey Mouse cartoon or theme park show without his cheerful, ever-youthful voice. I never got to meet him and really only knew him through his work and the occasional interview. However, as a life-long fan of Mickey Mouse and Disney in general, his voice has been a consistent and welcome present in my life. There is some comfort knowing that Mickey will live on both through the re-watching of the many wonderful projects Allwine and his predecessors took part in over the years and eventually through the selection of their inevitable successor, a process that, according to rumor, has been going on for some time and that Allwine had fortunately been very involved until the time of his passing. But the genial, funny, and modest man behind the familiar falsetto I grew up with has sadly been silenced and he will be missed.
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