Early life

Donna Paige Helmintoller was born on May 10, 1956 in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and attended Nova High School in Davie, Florida and Parkway Middle School of The Arts which is also in Florida. She performed in shows with the Fort Lauderdale Children's Theatre.

O'Hara began acting at the age of four, attending acting classes in her home state of Florida. It wasn't until she was 12 years old that she developed an interest in singing and enrolled in a performing arts high school. O'Hara cites American actress and singer Judy Garland as one of her idols.

Career

Broadway and stage

O'Hara made her first appearance on the Broadway stage as Ellie May Chipley in the revival of Showboat in 1983 starring Donald O'Connor. She repeated the role for the Houston Grand Opera's 1989 production and continued with them when the show was moved to the Cairo Opera House in Egypt. Continuing her legacy as Ellie, she also sang the part on the 1989 Grammy nominated recording of the musical with Jerry Hadley, Frederica von Stade and Teresa Stratas, conducted by John McGlinn on the Angel EMI label. Her other American stage credits include the title role in The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Broadway and national tour) and Ado Annie in a national tour of Oklahoma directed by William Hammerstein.

Internationally, O'Hara has played the role of Nellie Forbush in South Pacific (Australia).

In April, 2011, O'Hara played the role of Judy Garland in "From Gumm to Garland: JUDY, The Musical" at the Tempe Center for the Arts in Tempe, Arizona.

Transition to film and Beauty and the Beast

A longtime fan of Walt Disney Pictures, O'Hara auditioned for Beauty and the Beast at the age of 30 after reading about the film in The New York Times.

O'Hara also starred as Venus in the BBC's recorded broadcast of the live presentation of Kurt Weill's "One Touch of Venus" and in tribute to her Belle character from Beauty and the Beast, she portrayed Angela, a character in a fictional soap opera, for Disney's 2007 live action/traditional 2-D animated movie Enchanted.

For her work as Belle, O'Hara was honored with a Disney Legend Award on August 19, 2011.

As of 2011, O'Hara was replaced by Julie Nathanson as the voice of Belle due to her voice changing significantly over the course of twenty years. Despite this, she still paints Belle for Disney Fine Art and continues to do promotional appearances for Disney.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]