Wayne Allwine

Wayne Anthony Allwine (February 2, 1947 - May 18, 2009; aged 62) was an American voice actor, sound effects editor, and foley artist. He was known for voicing Mickey Mouse from 1977 until his death in 2009, replacing previous voice actor Jimmy MacDonald.

Biography
Wayne Anthony Allwine was born in Glendale, California, on February 7, 1947. He is a graduate of John Burroughs High School where he acted in various school plays growing up. His father was a barbershop quartet singer.

In 1966, Allwine started work in the mailing room at the Disney studios, before working in the sound effects department with Jimmy MacDonald for seven years. He got a call from Disney for an open audition for the role of Mickey Mouse in late 1976, after a previous actor failed to show up. Upon auditioning for the role, Allwine became the third official voice of Mickey Mouse in 1977. He replaced Jimmy MacDonald, who in 1947 had taken over from Walt Disney himself, who had performed the role since 1928 as well as supplying Mickey's voice for animated portions of the original The Mickey Mouse Club television show (ABC-TV, 1955–1959).

Allwine's first appearance as Mickey was voicing the animated lead-ins for The New Mickey Mouse Club in 1977. His first appearance as Mickey for a theatrical release was in the 1983 featurette Mickey's Christmas Carol. In the same film, he voiced a Santa Claus on the street appealing for charity donations at the start of the movie, Moley (who appears with Ratty) "collecting for the poor", and one of the two weasel undertakers in the Christmas future scene.

He also starred in films such as The Great Mouse Detective (1986), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), The Prince and the Pauper(1990) and Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers (2004), and the TV series Mickey Mouse Works (1999–2000), House of Mouse(2001–2003), and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse(2006–2012). He has provided Mickey's voice in the popular Kingdom Hearts series of video games prior to Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, which was done in collaboration with Japanese video game company Square Enix. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, which was the last game that used his voice (mainly with Mickey as a playable character in Mission Mode), would leave a message in his memory as the game was released in North America several months after his death.

In addition to his voice work, Allwine had also been a sound effects editor on Disney films and TV shows including Splash (1984) and Three Men and a Baby (1987); as well as Innerspace (1987), Alien Nation (1988), and Star Trek V: The Final Frontier for other studios.

Allwine was married to Russi Taylor, the voice of Mickey's girlfriend Minnie Mouse from 1986 until her death in 2019. He died aged 62 on May 18, 2009 of complications from acute diabetes. He was succeeded by Bret Iwan as the voice of Mickey.