Mae Questel; Voice of Betty Boop

Mae Questel, 89, the voice of cartoon heroines Betty Boop and Olive Oyl. Most recently seen as Woody Allen’s mother in the 1989 motion picture “New York Stories,” the actress was 17 when she won a contest to find a look-alike for Helen Kane, a singer then known as the boop-oop-a-doop queen. Questel imitated the singer in vaudeville shows, soon adding imitations of Maurice Chevalier, Fanny Brice, Rudy Vallee and Marlene Dietrich. Her stage work won her a contract to take over the cartoon voice of Betty Boop, which she did in more than 150 animated shorts before the character was retired in 1939. Her recording of “On the Good Ship Lollipop” in Betty Boop’s voice sold more than 2 million copies in the 1930s. In 1933, she created the voices of Popeye’s skinny girlfriend Olive Oyl and the series’ baby, Sweet Pea. In person, Questel acted on Broadway and in such films as “A Majority of One” in 1962 and “Funny Girl” in 1968. On Sunday in Manhattan.