This is an entry to Mark Evanier's list of the twenty top voice actors in American animated cartoons between 1928 and 1968. For more on this list, read this. To see all the listings posted to date, click here.
Most Famous Roles: (Tie:) Betty Boop, Olive Oyl
Other Notable Roles: Little Audrey, Casper the Friendly Ghost (at times), many supporting parts in Popeye cartoons including Swee'Pea.
What She Did Besides Cartoon Voices: Lots of character roles in movies and television, including a part in the film, Funny Girl. But where you really saw her face was in commercials. She did hundreds of them including a long-running series for Scott Towels as "Aunt Bluebell."
Why She's On This List: A lot of the personality of Betty Boop came from Ms. Questel, who was hired to do an impression of the popular singer Helen Kane but who turned the role into a unique and adorable performance. And acting in those cartoons wasn't easy because at the Fleischer Studio, they did the animation first and the actors had to perform with personality while matching already-animated lip movements and gestures. She wasn't the only person who did Betty or Olive Oyl either but after her, when anyone else did those characters, they were trying to replicate Mae Questel.
Fun Fact: A number of actors filled in as Popeye for his main voice, Jack Mercer, while Mercer was in the service. Ms. Questel claimed that one of the fill-ins was her and she often accompanied this claim with a credible Popeye impression. No one however has identified an actual cartoon which featured her speaking for the Sailor Man…which doesn't mean it didn't happen.