Mary Costa

American lyric soprano and actress, best known on screen as the voice of Princess Aurora in Walt Disney's animated feature Sleeping Beauty (1959). A beautiful blue-eyed blonde, Mary was born of Italian ancestry, the daughter of John and Hazel Costa. She trained at the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music, made a few early radio appearances on Edgar Bergen's show and was 'discovered' at the age of 22 by the composer Walter Schumann, who recruited her for the part of Princess Aurora. The film took six years to make and was released in 1959. Schumann never got to see the finished product. He had died the year before, aged just 44.

Costa married Hollywood director Frank Tashlin in 1953 and appeared that same year in his screwball farce Marry Me Again (1953) at RKO. She did a couple of TV guest spots and then played a gangster's moll opposite Rory Calhoun in the entertaining film noir The Big Caper (1957). Her last noted performance on screen was as Henrietta 'Jetty' Treffz (1818-1878), the first wife of composer Johann Strauss (played by Horst Buchholz) in the biopic The Great Waltz (1972).

Costa made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Violetta in La Traviata in 1964. She went on to international stardom as a famous diva, performing at many of the great concert halls and opera houses throughout the U.S. and Europe.

Named a Disney Legend in 1999, Costa was awarded a National Medal of Arts at the White House in January 2021 "for her extraordinary talent, inspiration, and contribution to the operatic arts. Her stellar career includes performances in 38 operatic roles."