Russi Taylor

Russell "Russi" Taylor (May 4, 1944 - July 26, 2019) was the voice actress who provided the voice of Birdie the Early Bird in the McDonald's TV commercial ads.

Career
Russi was the voice actress of Disney's "Minnie Mouse" character, a role which she retained since 1986 until her death in 2019, longer than any other voice actress, which includes performances in the Disney's House of Mouse and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Mickey Mousekersize and the Kingdom Hearts video game series, among many others. She also did the voices of Martin Prince, Sherri and Terri, and Üter on the animated FOX-TV series The Simpsons. She also starred as Baby Joy in the cartoon Super Why!. She also was the original voice of Strawberry Shortcake in the six 1980s TV specials.

Russi also voiced Pebbles Flintstone in The Flintstones Comedy Show for Hanna-Barbera in 1980. She also voiced such characters as the character Baby Gonzo in Muppet Babies, Nova in Twinkle, the Dream Being and Pac-Baby in the Pac-Man animated TV series. She was also the voices of Drizella and Fairy Godmother in the Cinderella sequels, Cinderella II: Dreams Come True and Cinderella III: A Twist in Time.

Taylor also provided the voice of the main hero Widget in Widget the World Watcher and Hard Luck Duck in a What-a-Cartoon! short.

She also appeared in Disney Princess Enchanted Tales: Follow Your Dreams, where she played Fauna and Sofia the First, alongside her Simpsons castmates, Tress MacNeille and Frank Welker (he voices the Grimace character for McDonald's TV commercials). She was nominated for an Emmy for her voice work in PBS' series Jakers! in 2006. She recently voiced a witch in her second Scooby-Doo movie, Scooby-Doo and the Goblin King.

Taylor also replaced Jeanette Nolan (who died in 1998) as Widow Tweed in The Fox and the Hound 2.

Personal life
Russi was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a north Boston suburb. She was married to Wayne Allwine, the third voice of Mickey Mouse, from 1991 until his death on May 18, 2009. They were both named "Disney Legends" in 2008.

Death
Russi Taylor died on July 26, 2019 at her home in Glendale, California at the age of 75 from colon cancer. She is now currently buried at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.