Dawn Greenhalgh Dies: ‘Babar’ & ‘Anne of Green Gables’ Star Was 93

Dawn Greenhalgh, known for voicing Queen Celeste in two animated Babar series and starring alongside daughter Megan Follows in the miniseries Anne of Green Gables, has died. She was 93.

The Canadian actor died on November 6 at home in Toronto, Ontario, “surrounded by the love of her family and friends,” according to an online obituary cited by The Hollywood Reporter.

Greenhalgh was born in Shanghai, China, and immigrated to Canada when she was 14, per her obit. She attended Montreal High School in Montreal, Quebec, and at age 19 was named a founding cast member of the Stratford Festival theater repertory in Stratford, Ontario.

“Dawn Greenhalgh was a powerhouse, a dynamic, brilliant actress,” Antoni Cimolino, the festival’s artistic director, said in a statement on Facebook. “As an extraordinary artist she could be both charming and unsettling. It was a pleasure to hear her perspective on plays and productions as it was informed by a lifetime of wide experience, a sparkling intellect, and an independent, free-thinking mind.”

Greenhalgh studied with Uta Hagen, Herbert Berghof and Mira Rostova in New York City and performed on stage both there and in London’s West End.

Among Greenhalgh’s early screen roles was a starring part in the 1969 Canadian soap opera Strange Paradise, on which she embarked soon after she and then-husband Ted Follows welcomed daughter Megan. Greenhalgh and Ted, married between 1958 and 1979, had three other children — Samantha, Edwina, and Laurence — per THR.

In 1985, Greenhalgh and Megan shared the screen in the miniseries Anne of Green Gables, with Megan playing the title role of the Lucy Maud Montgomery adaptation and Greenhalgh playing Mrs. Cadbury.

She voiced Queen Celeste in the 1989 series Babar and in the 2010 follow-up Babar and the Adventures of Badou.

Greenhalgh’s other screen work includes roles in the films The Virgin Suicides (1999), Avenging Angelo (2002), Welcome to Mooseport (2004), and Maps to the Stars (2014).

And in television guest-starring roles, she appeared in Hotel, Night Heat, La Femme Nikita, Doc, and Slings and Arrows. Her most recent TV appearance came in 2022 when she recurred on Five Days at Memorial.

Cimolino said the “vigor of Dawn’s life force” and her “love for the arts” brought “understanding and joy to countless people.”