Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#2310
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
June Foray represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 83 years in, and June is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
June Foray appears in 19 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without June. Mulan is the clearest case: a film rated 8.0 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, quiet performance. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for comedy, family, animation. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Tim Story, Lynne Southerland, Joe Dante and others, June Foray helped set a standard other performers now audition against. Awards bodies have been slower than the work, which is usually the sign of a career built on choices rather than campaigns.
Mulan (1998) as Grandmother Fa (voice) · Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) as Wheezy / Lena Hyena (voice) · The Aristocats (1970) as Cat Screeches (uncredited)
Career snapshot
Ranked #2310 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
19
1938–2021
Career length
83 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.0
Mulan
Average Nutevio score
6.9
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.9
Mulan
Most frequent director
Arthur Rankin, Jr.
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Arthur Rankin, Jr.
Most common genre
Animation
19 titles
Average runtime
1h 0m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.3
out of 10
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio metric
Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.
Nutevio Influence Score
7.2
out of 10
A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.
How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.
What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.
Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.
Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.
Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.
Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.
Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.
The reading other performers now have to answer.
Actor DNA
A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.
The shape of a career
Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.
Peak years
Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.
Best decade
1990s
7.5 average MV
The 1990s are where the work and the material meet. Mulan, Space Jam — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
7.5
Across 2 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1990s
7.4
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1930s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Most productive era
1950s
5 films
The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.
Range, mapped
Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.
| Genre | 1930s | 1940s | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | — | — | — | 6.51 film | — | — | — | — | — |
| Action | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 6.51 film | — |
| Comedy | — | 6.81 film | 6.63 films | 6.82 films | 7.31 film | 7.22 films | 6.91 film | 6.52 films | 6.91 film |
| Crime | — | — | — | — | — | 7.61 film | — | — | — |
| Romance | — | — | 7.21 film | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1938Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Animals (voice) (uncredited).
Highest rated performance · Career peak
1998Mulan
8.0 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer. Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2021Tom & Jerry
The current state of the argument, as Tom / Jerry (archive sounds) (uncredited).
Our order
Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.
Every title
Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.
19 of 19 films
as Grandmother Fa (voice)
Directed by Tony Bancroft
as Cindy Lou Who (voice) (uncredited)
Directed by Chuck Jones
as Wheezy / Lena Hyena (voice)
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
as Cat Screeches (uncredited)
Directed by Wolfgang Reitherman
as Mermaid / Squaw (voice) (uncredited)
Directed by Clyde Geronimi
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
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The defining work
#1
Grandmother Fa (voice)
Mulan (1998)
Performance score7.8
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Grandmother Fa (voice) gives June Foray a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Cindy Lou Who (voice) (uncredited)
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966)
Performance score7.6
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Cindy Lou Who (voice) (uncredited) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Wheezy / Lena Hyena (voice)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
Performance score7.4
Who Framed Roger Rabbit asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Wheezy / Lena Hyena (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Cat Screeches (uncredited)
The Aristocats (1970)
Performance score7.2
The Aristocats asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Cat Screeches (uncredited) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movieStart here
A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.
Best entry point
as Grandmother Fa (voice)
Start here. Mulan is the clearest statement of what June Foray does — accessible, 88 minutes, and rated 8.0 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet June at the most legible performance, then move forward in time so each film reads as a response to the one before it rather than a repetition of it.
Peter Pan (1953)
Keeps the adventure register of Mulan but asks for a colder reading of it.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966)
Keeps the family register of Peter Pan but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Aristocats (1970)
Keeps the comedy register of How the Grinch Stole Christmas! but asks for a colder reading of it.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
Keeps the comedy register of The Aristocats but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Jack Hannah
Director
2 films together
Notably Lambert the Sheepish Lion
Clyde Geronimi
Director
2 films together
Notably Peter Pan
Chuck Jones
Director
2 films together
Notably How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
Arthur Rankin, Jr.
Director
2 films together
Notably Frosty the Snowman
William Cottrell
Director
1 film together
Notably Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Tex Avery
Director
1 film together
Notably Red Hot Riding Hood
William Hanna
Director
1 film together
Notably The Man Called Flintstone
Wolfgang Reitherman
Director
1 film together
Notably The Aristocats
Robert McKimson
Director
1 film together
Notably Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales
Robert Zemeckis
Director
1 film together
Notably Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Joe Pytka
Director
1 film together
Notably Space Jam
Tony Bancroft
Director
1 film together
Notably Mulan
Joe Dante
Director
1 film together
Notably Looney Tunes: Back in Action
Lynne Southerland
Director
1 film together
Notably Mulan II
Tim Story
Director
1 film together
Notably Tom & Jerry
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Clyde Geronimi
Director
2 films together · 7.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Peter PanChuck Jones
Director
2 films together · 6.8 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
How the Grinch Stole Christmas!Jack Hannah
Director
2 films together · 6.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Lambert the Sheepish LionArthur Rankin, Jr.
Director
2 films together · 6.6 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Frosty the SnowmanTony Bancroft
Director
1 film together · 8.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
MulanRobert Zemeckis
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Who Framed Roger RabbitWolfgang Reitherman
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The AristocatsWilliam Cottrell
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Snow White and the Seven DwarfsTim Story
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Tom & JerryJoe Pytka
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Space JamRobert McKimson
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit TalesTex Avery
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Red Hot Riding HoodLynne Southerland
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mulan IIJoe Dante
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Looney Tunes: Back in ActionWilliam Hanna
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Man Called FlintstoneSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
Mulan
as Grandmother Fa (voice)
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Mulan
as Grandmother Fa (voice)
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Mulan
as Grandmother Fa (voice)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Space Jam
as Granny (voice)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Mulan
as Grandmother Fa (voice)
If the career had to be argued in a single scene, our editors would pick one from this film and rest the case.
In their films' words
“You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. June Foray has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
83 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Animation Legend
Awarded
19 catalogue titles in animation, each one a reference point for the films that followed.
Our desk
Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.
Best ending
Mulan
as Grandmother Fa (voice)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Mulan
as Grandmother Fa (voice)
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Mulan
as Grandmother Fa (voice)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Man Called Flintstone
as Tanya Malichite (voice)
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Mulan
as Grandmother Fa (voice)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Mulan II
as Grandmother Fa (voice)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales
as Granny / Mother Gorilla / Goldimouse (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Tom & Jerry
as Tom / Jerry (archive sounds) (uncredited)
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Morgan Freeman
Built a career in the same territory: action and crime
Jamie Harris
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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