Margaret Kerry may not be a household name, but her animated persona certainly is. A little over fifty years ago, Kerry was a regular on "The Ruggles", one of network television's first sitcoms, playing the daughter of comedian Charles Ruggles. She was asked by the Disney studio to model for Tinker Bell, the spunky pixie of J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan, for a feature-length cartoon adaptation. Back then, modeling entailed a complete performance of the character's actions; this was photographed as reference for animators, who were also on hand to make sketches of poses.
Margaret Kerry, the model for Disney's Tinker Bell, appears in a present-day publicity photo.
Like Dopey and Dumbo before her, Tinker Bell was a character who never spoke. Thus, the actions were everything and Kerry's soundstage pantomime -- occasionally aided by giant props -- thoroughly mapped out the antics of the pint-sized pot mender who would win over hearts throughout the world. […]
