FROLLOZONE

When Tony Jay passed away on the 13th of August last year after failing to recover from complications due to cancer surgery, I was attending Pennsic War XXXV. It had been several years since I had last worked on a story based on the Hunchback, and I had no idea at the time that one of film animation's most treasured voices had hung up his microphone for the last time. I had bought a slit-sleeved royal purple dress (fitting, ironically) on Friday and I reveled with dancers, fools, royalty and drunkards througout the day and night, many of them attired in dress fitting the period of Esmeralda, Frollo, Clopin and Phoebus. Perhaps it was an unconscious tribute to my love for Victor Hugo's story of a hunchback and of Notre Dame, but that year I had decided that my persona would have lived precisely in the era described in HoND as a late 15th century French noblewoman. I now remember it as a tribute.

Not only did Tony Jay embody the spirit of the villain Frollo that he played so masterfully, but he also brought to his animated productions an aristocratic mischief, one that has defined the roles of three-dimensional characters beyond the staid, archetypal, single-minded antagonists of popular culture. I hope that the creativity Jay possessed survives in the imaginations of those who have heard his voice -- and dreamed.

You can use the sidebar navigation to see various interviews and goodies.