Animation fans mourn Mexican dubbing star Dolores Muñoz Ledo’s death

The animation world mourns the death of María Dolores Muñoz Ledo Ortega, also known as Marcela Septién. 

After the National Association of Actors from Mexico announced the death of the voice actress on February 13, animation accounts started to spread the news that the voice who dubbed Chip from “Chip 'n' Dale: Rescue Rangers” and Sorceress in “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe,” had passed away at 107 years old.

She was the oldest dubbing star in the world. She was born in Mexico City and was hired by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) in 1944. 

MGM had more than 20 Mexican voice actors in New York for their films, launching and furthering their careers in dubbing, including Pablo Ruelas Núñez, Edmundo García, José Cataño, Armando Velasco, Roberto Ayala, Galo Díaz Barriga, Víctor Alcocer, Amparo Villegas, Carlos David Ortigosa and Rosario Muñoz Ledo, her sister. 

Muñoz Ledo was also the Latin American voice of Adrian Pennino in “Rocky IV,” Anita Louise in “Marie Antoinette,” Donna Reed in “They Were Expendable” and Bea Arthur in “The Golden Girls."

Her work crossed generations by being the voice for animated series and cartoons like Lisa in “David the Gnome,” Baby Janice in “Muppet Babies,” and Kei Yuki in “Space Pirate Captain Harlock.”

She was credited as her pseudonym Septién for the radio soap opera "Kalimán, el Hombre Increíble." Mexican Modesto Ramón Vásquez González and Cuban Rafael Cutberto Navarro created the story in 1963. In the story, Kalimán was a prince from India who fought against giant spiders and space pirates with his sidekick Solín.