With the new Disney Princess flick, Beauty and the Beast, premiering this past week, one can only wonder back about the original Disney animated film from our childhood. Now, for myself I was too young for when the movie first premiered, however, along with other Disney films such as Cinderella and The Little Mermaid, I quickly became obsessed when I was older. The wonderful cast was filed with inspiring voices such as Angela Lansbury and Paige O'Hara. Here is where the original cast of Beauty and the Beast is now today.
Beast - Robby Benson
After his role as Beast in Beauty and the Beast, Benson later voiced the lead character J.T. Marsh on the acclaimed sci-fi cartoon series Exosquad in the late 90s. In 2007, he wrote LA Times Bestseller novel, Who Stole the Funny?: A Novel of Hollywood was released. Benson's medical memoir I'm Not Dead ... Yet! was released in June 2012. Benson has been a professor at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, the University of Utah, and the University of South Carolina. It was announced he would serve as a professor of Practice in the fall of 2013 at Indiana University.
Belle - Paige O'Hara
O'Hara also starred as Venus in the BBC's recorded broadcast of the live presentation of Kurt Weill's One Touch of Venus and in tribute to her Belle character from Beauty and the Beast, she portrayed Angela, a character in Disney's 2007 live action/traditional 2-D animated movie Enchanted. For her work as Belle, O'Hara was honored with a Disney Legend Award on August 19, 2011.
As of 2011, O'Hara was replaced by Julie Nathanson as the voice of Belle due to her voice changing significantly over the course of twenty years. Despite this, she still paints Belle for Disney Fine Art and also continues to do promotional appearances for Disney. In 2016, O'Hara appeared at numerous special screenings of Beauty and the Beast in honor of the film's 25th anniversary.
LeFou - Jesse Corti
He is best known for voicing LeFou in Beauty and the Beast and playing Courfeyrac in the original Broadway show Les Misérables. He has also appeared in numerous feature films and in several popular TV series such as 24, Heroes, Desperate Housewives, The West Wing, Judging Amy, Law & Order and most recently, Disney's Zootopia as Mr. Manchas. In 1990, he received a Clio Award for his Drug-Free America commercial after the passing of his wife who was killed.
Gaston - Richard White
White also played the character of Gaylord Ravenal in Show Boat at Paper Mill Playhouse and Robert Mission in The New Moon, at the New York City Opera. White also created the title role of Erik in the world premiere of Arthur Kopit and Maury Yeston's musical, Phantom and sings the role on the cast recording. From 2012-2013, White starred as Sir Danvers Carew in the national tour and Broadway revival of Jekyll and Hyde.
Mrs. Potts - Angela Lansbury
Following the end of Murder, She Wrote, Lansbury returned to the theatre. Although cast in the lead role in the 2001 Kander and Ebb's Musical The Visit. She made an appearance in a season six episodes of the television show Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2005. She starred in the 2005 film Nanny McPhee as Aunt Adelaide, commenting that it was "such fun to play a baddie!” She then appeared in the 2011 film Mr. Popper's Penguins, opposite Jim Carrey. In February 2017, it was revealed that Lansbury has joined the cast of the upcoming movie Mary Poppins Returns. It is a sequel to the Academy Award-winning 1964 film, set 20 years later in Depression-era London. Filming began at Shepperton Studios that month and it is due for release in December 2018.
Lumiere - Jerry Orbach
Unfortunately, in 2004 Orbach passed away due to cancer. He was 69 when he died. However, prier to his death Orbach starred on Law & Order for 12 years, ultimately becoming the third longest-serving main cast member (behind S. Epatha Merkerson and Sam Waterston) in the show's 20-year-run history, as well as one of its most popular. During Orbach's tenure on Law & Order, the series won the 1997 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series among other accolades, made multiple crossover episodes with fellow NBC series Homicide: Life on the Street, and spawned a franchise that included the TV film Exiled: A Law & Order Movie, the spin-off series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Law & Order: Criminal Intent (both of which featured Orbach in guest appearances), and three video games.
Cogsworth - David Ogden Stiers
Stiers expanded his work on television with regular guest appearances on North and South Star Trek: The Next Generation, Murder, She Wrote, Matlock, Touched by an Angel, Wings, and Frasier, along with a recurring role in Season 1 of Two Guys and a Girl as Mr. Bauer. In 2002, Stiers started a recurring role as the Reverend Purdy on the successful USA Network series The Dead Zone with Anthony Michael Hall. In 2006, he was cast as the recurring character Oberoth in Stargate Atlantis.
He lent his voice to the direct-to-video Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman as the Penguin. Stiers did voice work for Solovar in a two-part episode "The Brave and The Bold" in Justice League and voiced Solovar again in a Justice League Unlimited episode "Dead Reckoning". In Hoodwinked, the animated movie partly based on Little Red Riding Hood, Stiers voiced the role of Nicky Flippers, the frog detective who is dispatched to Granny's house. He voiced Pop's father, Mr. Maellard, in the animated TV series Regular Show, which debuted in 2010.
