Mary Costa
Costa in 1976
Born	(1930-04-05)April 5, 1930 (age 94) Knoxville, Tennessee, U.S.
Alma mater	Los Angeles Conservatory of Music
Occupations	Actress singer
Years active	1942–2014 (acting)
Notable work	Voice ofAurora in Disney'sSleeping Beauty (1959)
Spouse	Frank Tashlin ​ ​ (m. 1953; div. 1966)​
Awards	Disney Legend (1999)

Mary Costa (born April 5, 1930)^[1] is an American retired actress and singer. Her most notable film credit is providing the voice ofPrincess Aurora in the 1959 Disney animated filmSleeping Beauty. She is the last surviving voice actress of the threeDisney Princesses created inWalt Disney's lifetime and was named aDisney Legend in 1999.^[1][2][3] She is a recipient of the 2020National Medal of Arts.^[4]

Costa was born inKnoxville, Tennessee, where she lived for much of her childhood. Her parents were John (1875–1947) and Hazel (1892–1993). Of Italian descent, Costa was raised in aBaptist household^[5][6] and sang Sunday school solos at the age of six. AtKnoxville High School, she sang in the chorus.^[7][8] When she was in her early teens, her family relocated to Los Angeles, California, where she completed high school and won a Music Sorority Award as the outstanding voice among Southern California high school seniors. Following high school, she entered theLos Angeles Conservatory of Music to study with famed maestro Gaston Usigli. Between 1948 and 1951, she appeared withEdgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy on the Bergen radio show. She also sang withDean Martin andJerry Lewis in concerts at UCLA, and made numerous commercials forLux Radio Theatre.^[9]

In 1952, after meeting people at a party with her future husband, directorFrank Tashlin, she auditioned for the part of Disney'sPrincess Aurora, theSleeping Beauty, in Disney'sSleeping Beauty (1959).Walt Disney called her personally within hours of the audition to inform her that the part was hers. In 1958, Costa was called upon to substitute forElisabeth Schwarzkopf at a gala concert in theHollywood Bowl, conducted byCarmen Dragon. Thanks to glowing reviews from that performance, she was invited to sing the lead in her first fully staged operatic production,The Bartered Bride, produced by the renowned German producer,Carl Ebert, for the Los Angeles Guild Opera. Ebert later requested she appear at theGlyndebourne Festival, where she debuted.^[10][11]

Costa went on to perform in 44 operatic roles on stages throughout the world, includingJules Massenet'sManon at theMetropolitan Opera, and Violetta inLa traviata at theRoyal Opera House in London and the Bolshoi in Moscow, and Cunegonde in the 1959 London premiere ofLeonard Bernstein'sCandide. In 1961, forRCA, she recorded Musetta inLa bohème, oppositeAnna Moffo andRichard Tucker, with the Rome Opera House Orchestra and Chorus conducted byErich Leinsdorf.

Among roles which she sang for theSan Francisco Opera, she was Tytania in the American premiere ofBritten'sA Midsummer Night's Dream (1961), Ninette in the world premiere ofNorman Dello Joio'sBlood Moon (1961), and Anne Truelove in the San Francisco premiere of Stravinsky'sThe Rake's Progress. She made herMetropolitan Opera debut as Violetta inLa traviata on January 6, 1964.^[6]

Costa impressed television audiences throughout her career with guest appearances on many shows, such asBing Crosby'sChristmas Show on NBC-TV. She appeared with Crosby andSergio Franchi onThe Hollywood Palace in 1970. She also appeared onFrank Sinatra'sWoman of the Year Timex Special for NBC, where, with others, she was honored as one of the Women of the Year. In 1973,Sammy Davis Jr. asked her to appear on his firstNBC Follies, in which she performed a blues selection with Davis.^[12][13]

Jacqueline Kennedy asked her to sing at a memorial service for her husband, U.S. PresidentJohn F. Kennedy, from the Los Angeles Sports Arena in 1963. At the memorial concert, Costa sang "Libera Me" from Giuseppe Verdi's Requiem under the baton of conductor Zubin Mehta. She sang for the inaugural concert of theJohn F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 1971. In 1972, she starred in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer featureThe Great Waltz, depicting the life ofJohann Strauss II. Additional movie credits includeThe Big Caper (1957) andMarry Me Again (1953).^[7]

Mary married cartoonist and screenwriterFrank Tashlin in 1953. They divorced in 1966.^[14]

Having retired from acting in 2014, Costa has dedicated her later years to inspiring children and teenagers, giving motivational talks at schools and colleges across the country. She is also a celebrity endorser for child abuse prevention. She continues to do promotional appearances for Disney, most recently for theBlu-ray release ofSleeping Beauty and the 50th anniversary of the film.^[15]

In 1989, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Licia Albanese Puccini Foundation. When Disney began releasing videocassette versions of its animated films, Costa was one of three actresses to file lawsuits over royalties for their performances; at the time of Costa's 1989 filing,Peggy Lee ofLady and the Tramp (1955) later won her lawsuit in April 1990 andIlene Woods ofCinderella (1950) filed hers in December 1990.^[16] Voice actressJennifer Hale replaced Costa as the voice of Aurora in 2001. In November 1999, she received the Disney Legends Award, and her handprints are now a permanent part of the Disney Legends Plaza at the entrance to Disney Studios. In 2000 she was selected as the Tennessee Woman of Distinction by theAmerican Lung Association. In April 2001, she was honored by the Metropolitan Opera Guild for Distinguished Verdi Performances of the 20th Century. In 2003 she was appointed by President George W. Bush to the National Council on the Arts, where she served until 2007. In December 2007, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree byCarson–Newman College inJefferson City, Tennessee. On November 2, 2007, she was inducted into the Knoxville Opera Hall of Fame. Earlier she had launched the inaugural Knoxville Opera season in 1978 as Violetta inLa traviata.^[17]

On April 24, 2012, Costa served as the commencement speaker atPellissippi State graduation ceremony.^[18] On November 10, 2014, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane and Musical Letters from the College of Arts and Sciences, University of Tennessee, Knoxville. In 2014, Costa was named one of theYWCA Knoxville's Tribute to Women Honorees during the 30th anniversary celebration. On March 17, 2015 she was a recipient of Tennessee's 2015 Governor's Arts Award.^[19] On her 86th birthday, Costa wrote an open letter to her fans thanking them for their support.^[20] She also announced that she would no longer directly reply to fan-mail, but she would continue to sign autographs and meet fans at events while also focusing her efforts on working with young children.^[21] In August 2020 during theCOVID-19 pandemic, Costa once again thanked fans for their continued support but also announced that she would no longer respond to any fan-mail at all due to the overwhelming amount she received following her 90th birthday.^[22][23] She was awarded theNational Medal of Arts on January 13, 2021.^[4][24]

• Cummings, David (ed.),"Costa, Mary,International Who's Who in Classical Music, Routledge, 2003, p. 158;ISBN 1-85743-174-X
• Hayes, John"2 with Futures to Follow: Mary Costa and Marilyn Horne",Billboard, May 16, 1964, p. 38
• Hollis, Tim and Ehrbar, Greg,Mouse tracks: the story of Walt Disney Records, Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2006, p. 52;ISBN 1-57806-849-5
• Kennedy, Michael and Bourne, Joyce,Mary Costa profile,The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music, Oxford University Press, 1996 (accessed via Encyclopedia.com on January 26, 2010)
• Metropolitan Opera,Performance Record: Costa, Mary profile, metoperafamily.org; accessed August 12, 2014.
• Sleeman, Elizabeth (ed.),Mary Costa profile,The International Who's Who of Women, Routledge, 2001, p. 116;ISBN 1-85743-122-7
• The Walt Disney Company,Disney Legends: Mary Costa m legends.disney.go.com; accessed January 26, 2010.

Wikiquote has quotations related toMary Costa.

• Media related toMary Costa at Wikimedia Commons
• Mary Costa atIMDb
• Mary Costa at the Disney Legends Website

• 1930 births
• 20th-century American actresses
• Living people
• American film actresses
• American operatic sopranos
• American voice actresses
• American people of Italian descent
• Glendale High School (Glendale, California) alumni
• Musicians from Knoxville, Tennessee
• Baptists from Tennessee
• Tennessee Democrats
• 21st-century American singers
• California Democrats
• United States National Medal of Arts recipients
• 21st-century American women opera singers
• 20th-century American women singers
• American stage actresses
• 20th-century American singers
• American radio actresses
• 21st-century American actresses
• American musical theatre actresses

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