Who voiced King Stefan?

Taylor Holmes voiced King Stefan in Disney’s 1959 animated film Sleeping Beauty.

Holmes supplied the speaking voice of Aurora’s father, the king whose family hosts her christening and later struggles to protect her from Maleficent’s curse. King Stefan is written as a concerned but somewhat formal monarch, and Holmes’s performance gives him a warm, dignified presence during the opening celebration and the later scenes involving Prince Phillip.

Several actors auditioned for the role, including Hans Conried, before Holmes was chosen. Holmes’s casting is especially notable because Sleeping Beauty became his final film role. He died in September 1959, about eight months after the movie’s release.

A common mix-up is confusing King Stefan’s actor with Bill Shirley, who voiced Prince Phillip, or Bill Thompson, who voiced King Hubert. Verna Felton played Flora, one of the three good fairies, not Stefan’s queen or the king himself.