Cruella de Vil

Disney's animated version of Cruella first appeared in 1961's One Hundred and One Dalmatians, in which she is voiced by Betty Lou Gerson and animated by Marc Davis who together crafted her into an iconic and memorable character. Disney based its version of Cruella on the personality and mannerisms of Tallulah Bankhead, and her long, lanky physical design came from Mary Wickes, who served as her live-action model. The cool detachment of the original character was replaced by a crazed mania, in which Cruella only barely clung to a sheen of glamour. For unexplained reasons, Cruella's cat and husband were omitted from the Disney version. Cruella drives a very distinctive automobile, colored red and black, which strongly resembles a Mercedes-Benz 500K Cabriolet.

In 2002, Forbes ranked Disney's Cruella as the thirteenth wealthiest fiction character, citing the single 65-year-old has a net worth of $875 million, obtained through inheritance.[7] She was also listed as the 39th greatest villain in American cinema in AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains. Moreover, in Ultimate Disney's Top 30 Disney Villains Countdown, Cruella ranked #6.[8]

In the film, Cruella is wealthy, rude and spoiled. She makes fun of Anita Radcliffe and her husband Roger for making a living from songwriting. Cruella desires to make a fur coat from the Radcliffes' Dalmatians, but does not tell the Radcliffes this, simply demanding to know when the puppies arrive. Upon the night of the puppies' birth, Cruella is at first dismayed to find their coats completely spotless, but cheers up when Anita tells her that the spots will appear in a few weeks. Cruella makes an offer to buy the puppies, all the while mocking Roger for his songwriting career and splattering Roger and Pongo with ink from her pen. When Roger finally stands up to her, she furiously ends her friendship with Anita and storms out, vowing vengeance.

Cruella hires two thieves named Jasper and Horace Badun to steal the puppies, which they do. Roger immediately suspects her, but the police fail to find anything. However, fearing arrest, Cruella goes to her ancestral home in Suffolk where the puppies are being kept, and angrily demands that her henchmen kill and skin the puppies for her that very night, exploding a bottle of wine in the fireplace to drive home her point. The next morning, Cruella learns that the puppies have escaped the house in the night, being rescued by Pongo and Perdita. She and her henchmen set off in pursuit, and she berates Jasper and Horace for reckless driving, despite her obviously worse driving skills.

The next day, on Christmas Eve, Cruella, Jasper, and Horace track the Dalmatians to Dinsford. While driving her car across town, she sees a long procession of black puppies walking past her into a van. Realizing at the last second that the puppies are the Dalmatians in disguise, she pursues the van in her car and tries to ram the van over a cliff. Jasper attempts the same thing, but Horace panics and causes their truck to swerve and crash into Cruella. Cruella throws a tantrum among the wreckage of the two vehicles as the van gets away.

The film features a song, written by Mel Leven, using her name as the title, sung by the Dalmatians' owner Roger (Bill Lee), who holds the woman in contempt. The lyric begins with: "Cruella de Vil, Cruella de Vil. If she doesn't scare you, no evil thing will...", possibly foreshadowing the deranged, glowing-red-eyed face Cruella assumes while chasing the van.

Cruella returns in 101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure, once again as the main antagonist, where she is now voiced by Susanne Blakeslee. The film picks up where the previous film left off, establishing that Cruella was exposed as the mastermind behind the kidnapping of Pongo and Perdita's 15 puppies, but was not sent to prison for her crimes. She is instead placed under a restraining order forbidding her from any contact with the Radcliffes or their dogs, and on probation which prohibits her from purchasing any more furs. Her fancy car is now reduced to a shoddily fixed pile of wreckage, which falls apart when she tries to drive it.

Cruella initially enlists the help of a painter named Lars to cure her of her obsession for fur coats. For a while, he paints beautiful spotted paintings for her, soothing her mania. However, she starts to regress, eventually demanding he make paintings out of puppy skins and rehiring Jasper and Horace to steal the puppies accordingly. When Lars, an animal lover, refuses to harm the puppies, Cruella reverts to her original plan to kill the dogs for a coat, eventually going completely insane. After an extended chase, she winds up stranded in the Thames, where she is arrested and put in an insane asylum. Jasper and Horace, after this second debacle, renounce her completely and go legitimate, starting a shop together.

Cruella is the main antagonist of the 101 Dalmatians animated series, voiced by April Winchell in the majority of the episodes, and Tress MacNeille in the episodes "Fungus Among Us" and "Close But No Cigar". This Cruella is based on Glenn Close's portrayal from the live-action film, but with Betty Lou Gerson's design from the animated film. She does not wear fur, usually does not smoke (although in the episodes "Smoke Detectors" and "Hail to the Chief" she did) and is totally sane, yet still temperamental and impatient. Her villainous plot in the show was to steal the Dearlys' farm from them, using the puppies as a ransom. Her mother Malevola de Vil demands she do this, and Cruella also was denied the farm by old Widow Smedly the first time she tried to buy it, incensing her and beginning her obsession.

Cruella is an archetypal corporate villain who will seize on any scheme to make money, and Jasper and Horace are her oft-fired company employees, in this version. Cruella's schemes involve such things as drilling oil from the swamp near Dearly farm (thereby polluting it), buying Kanine Krunchies and replacing the nutritious ingredients with sawdust and chalk, or sending Jasper and Horace to drive out the owners of Mom and Pop's Grocery Store so she can buy it herself.

In the Christmas Special "A Christmas Cruella", it is revealed that, as a child, Cruella had wanted nothing more in life than a Dalmatian puppy. However, her parents never celebrated holidays or birthdays with her and always left her in the care of foreign nannies while they went on vacations, sending her nothing but clothes as gifts. She had a single white streak in her hair as a child. She finally snapped and turned evil in her teens, when her parents led her to believe they would be home for Christmas with her dream puppy, and then sent cardboard cutouts of themselves and a puppy instead. Her hair also turned half-white at this time.

In the series finale, she uses an inflatable bodysuit to disguise herself as a shapely blonde surfer clad in a bikini. She plans to seduce Roger, to prompt Anita to divorce him so she (Cruella) can buy the farm. When Anita goes swimming, Cruella asks Roger to go swimming with her and then tries to kiss him. Her inflatable suit is popped by the puppies' chicken friend, turning Cruella into the shape of a surfboard.

Cruella makes an appearance in the series 101 Dalmatian Street and is voiced by Michelle Gomez. The series takes place sixty years after the events of the original 1961 film (2021). Cruella's great-nephew Hunter de Vil plans to capture the family of Doug and Delilah, descendants of Pongo and Perdita that currently live in Camden Town, and bring them to his great-aunt in Switzerland. However, Hunter is unaware that she intends to kill the dalmatian family to make the fur coat. When he finds out, he turns on her and causes her to be injured by a machine. She later is arrested for her crimes.

In this adaptation, Cruella is in her late 80s or early 90s. She has lost her hair, but not her mobility or her vanity. She hides her aging with a special spray.

Walt Disney's early vision for The Rescuers (1977) revolved around the kidnapping of a polar bear from a city zoo; writers considered reusing Cruella as the main antagonist (presumably driven by her desire for the bear's fur). The idea was dismissed when the source for the storyline changed, and Disney did not want to make a sequel out of an otherwise unrelated film.

Susanne Blakeslee also voiced Cruella in Disney's House of Mouse, which featured a running gag in which she inspects dogs from other Disney films with a measuring ruler. She also appeared in Mickey's House of Villains as one of the villains who helps Jafar take over the House of Mouse for Halloween night. Cruella also appears in Disney's Christmas Favorites during the segment "Santa Cruella".[9]

Glenn Close portrays Cruella de Vil in the 1996 film 101 Dalmatians and its 2000 sequel 102 Dalmatians. The film reinvents Cruella as the vindictive, snobbish and very glamorous magnate of an haute couture fashion house, "House of De Vil," which specializes in fur couture. The character of Anita (played by Joely Richardson) is a couturière and employee of De Vil. Unlike the animated film, the live-action version provides the reason as to why Cruella wants to make the puppies into coats at a young age: their fur wouldn't be as soft when they fully grow up. At the start of the film, it is revealed that Cruella has secretly had her henchmen slaughter a white Siberian tiger at London Zoo for its pelt. However, the suspicions and accusations of the Dearly family force Cruella to step up her plans to make the puppies into a coat, the puppies escaping while her henchmen are preparing to do the work and Cruella being subsequently thrown into a vat of molasses and a pig pen when she tries to track them to a farm. At the end of the film, she is arrested and sent to prison, with the Dearlys taking over her house after Roger's latest video game proves a success when he makes a villain based on Cruella.

Along with Close's performance, Cruella's costumes (by Anthony Powell and Rosemary Burrows) received appreciative attention, including a spread in Vanity Fair. Claws were applied to her gloves, while her necklaces were made from teeth, to add to the idea that Cruella enjoyed wearing parts of dead animals. Nails were also projected from the heels to make them especially vicious in appearance. Some of her clothes were made out of leather or PVC, and Cruella always wore much makeup. She is seen in the film always smoking to give the appearance of a mysterious "villain."

This film increased the physical comedy of the Disney animated film, even veering into more juvenile humor, such as Cruella falling into a vat of old molasses. Close's performance was universally well-received and her sex appeal as the character was also credited. Close has commented on how demanding the slapstick physicality of the role was while wearing nail-heeled boots and corsets. Close also insisted that she fall into the molasses herself for genuine acting, as opposed to delegating it to a stunt double. The live-action film was not as critically successful as the animated movie, however.

In 102 Dalmatians, while under effect of Dr. Ivan Pavlov's hypnotherapy treatment, Cruella is cured of her fur addiction and released from prison on parole, three years after the events of the first film. She insists on being called "Ella" because "Cruella sounds so... cruel." Reformed, she becomes completely devoted to saving animals, and is appalled by even the smallest sight of fur fashion, boarding up all her fur clothing and the drawing of herself in a Dalmatian puppy coat. She quits her characteristic habits, such as wearing fur clothing, long nails, extravagant hairstyles, and of course, smoking.

Unfortunately, this new persona is not to last for long, since the effects of Big Ben's chimes manage to undo the conditioning, reverting Cruella to her former self. Her old habits return, with Cruella redesigning the sketch of the original Dalmatian coat to include a hood specifically so that she can use three new puppies to make the coat on top of the original ninety-nine puppies required; the chosen extra three being the children of Dipstick, one of the Dearlys' original fifteen puppies. However, despite her efforts to distract attention from herself by framing the owner of the Second Chance Dog Shelter for her crimes (the only person who stands to benefit if she reverts to her old behavior, as her parole states that her fortune will go to dog shelters in the Westminster area and Second Chance is the only such shelter), her plans are discovered by her parole officer, also Dipstick's owner.

Cruella's accomplice this time is furrier Jean Pierre Le Pelt, who carries out the actual thefts and helps design the coat. He is trapped in one of his own coats when it is sewn shut during a fight in a sweatshop in France, while the stolen puppies lure Cruella into a trap where she is literally baked into a massive cake. She is arrested, along with Le Pelt, both being sentenced to life in prison for their actions.

Cruella, an upcoming live-action film that will explore De Vil's backstory, is in development by Disney.[10] Screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna best known for writing The Devil Wears Prada is set to write the film for Disney, with Andrew Gunn as the producer,[11] and Alex Timbers as director[12] while Emma Stone is set to play the role.[13] In December 2018, it was announced that Timbers will no longer be directing the live-action Cruella de Vil film due to scheduling conflicts and will be replaced by I, Tonya director Craig Gillespie.[14] In May 2019, Emma Thompson reportedly joined the film in an undisclosed role.[15] The film was originally scheduled to be released on December 23, 2020.[16][14][17] However, in August 2019, it was announced that the film would be delayed to May 28, 2021.[18] The film's theatrical release was later cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and was announced to be released on Disney+ on a further date.[19]

Cruella De Vil
Once Upon a Time character
First appearance	"Heroes and Villains" (4.11)
Last appearance	"Leaving Storybrooke" (7.22)
Created by	Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz
Portrayed by	Victoria Smurfit Milli Wilkinson (child)
In-universe information
Alias	Cruella Feinberg
Title	Queen of Darkness
Occupation	Mayor of Underbrooke Ruler of the Underworld (briefly)
Family	Madeline (mother, deceased) Unnamed father (deceased) Two unnamed stepfathers (deceased)
Significant other	Isaac Heller (briefly) Mr. Feinberg Prince James (in the Underworld)
Centric episodes
"Darkness on the Edge of Town" "Sympathy for the De Vil"

Cruella appears in the fourth and fifth seasons of the TV series Once Upon a Time, where she is portrayed as an adult by Victoria Smurfit, and as a child by Milli Wilkinson, as a witch who possesses the power to control animals.[20] A childhood sociopath, Cruella poisoned her father and two stepfathers. Her mother Madeline (Anna Galvin) kept her locked inside the house to prevent her from harming others. As an adult, she met Isaac (the Author) (Patrick Fischler), who was posing as a regular journalist; through him, she learned that her world, a perpetual 1920s England, was one of many. Smitten with her, the Author gave her the power to control animals. Cruella used the new power to have her mother's dalmatians kill her, and killed them and made their fur into a coat. In a struggle to prevent the Author from writing another note about her, the vial of magic ink spills on her causing her blonde hair to turn into the iconic black and white. However, the pen had a remnant of ink in it, which the Author used to write down a note that would, from there on, prevent Cruella from taking another life. "Cruella De Vil can no longer take away the life of another." Cruella kept this secret, as intimidation would still work for her needs.

She later ended up in the Enchanted Forest, where she became infamous for turning animals into outerwear. Rumplestiltskin (Robert Carlyle) recruited her, Ursula (Merrin Dungey) and Maleficent (Kristin Bauer van Straten) to acquire the Dark Curse. However, he double-crossed them and left them to be killed by the Chernabog. Escaping together, Cruella joined the two in trying to get assistance from Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Prince Charming (Josh Dallas) in preventing the Evil Queen (Lana Parrilla) from casting the curse. However, the Tree of Wisdom they consulted refused to answer due to Snow's pregnancy. Along with Ursula, Cruella was asked by Maleficent to act as a guard while she went through childbirth as a dragon. As a result, Cruella was sucked into a portal with Ursula and the child to the Land Without Magic, due to a spell cast by the Apprentice. She and the Sea Witch steal the egg the baby was in and use the magic to prolong their youth in the magicless world. She later married Mr. Feinberg and lived in a mansion off Long island in New York.

In the present day, Cruella's marriage had fallen apart as the FBI was repossessing her husband's belongings. Mr. Gold and Ursula convinced her to join them in finding the Author to get happy endings. Cruella played little importance in the plot, until the Author was released from the book; unable to kill him herself, she pretended to threaten Henry Mills's (Jared S. Gilmore) life to force Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison) and Regina to do so. However, Emma confronted her, not knowing the restriction the Author placed on Cruella, and magically blasted her off a cliff to her death.

After her death, Cruella ended up in the Underworld, a purgatory run by the deity Hades. While there, she met David's twin brother James; they quickly struck up a romantic relationship due to their similar personalities. When the heroes arrived with Gold to rescue the recently deceased Killian Jones (Colin O'Donoghue), Cruella was among the deceased of whom they came across. In hopes of returning to life, Cruella appealed to Henry, the new Author, to use the quill to bring her back to life. Later, she helped Regina locate the grave of her lost love Daniel, who had since moved on to a better place. Mistaking David for James, Cruella made a move on him, then informed him of the hostility James held toward his brother. Cruella and James then hatched a plan to get out the Underworld by delivering Hades the child of Robin Hood and Zelena. James pretended to be David and put a magic-neutralizing bracelet on Emma, while he and Cruella took the baby. They took Emma and Robin to the docks, planning to throw them into the River of Lost Souls, until David and Hook stopped them. David ended up throwing James into the River and Cruella ran off.

Once Hades's heart was restarted, and he planned to leave the Underworld with Zelena, Cruella teamed up with the Blind Witch; Hades offered to let them rule the Underworld in his absence and help trap the heroes there. Delighted with the idea of getting to torment souls for eternity, Cruella agreed to the deal.

Following the heroes' escape back to Storybrooke, Hook teamed up with the deceased King Arthur to locate the storybook so they could tell Emma how to defeat Hades. They went to find Cruella at the diner, where she reacted with disdain towards seeing Hook, but she coyly regarded Arthur with keen interest because of his good looks. When questioned about the haunting booth, Cruella admitted she destroyed it for good, since she didn't want anyone moving on if it meant she had to be stuck in the Underworld, too. Hook then pressed her about the book's whereabouts, which Cruella was surprisingly forthcoming about. She knew they would eventually figure out the truth even if she lied, and then told them that she put the book in the River of Souls. Cruella was later dethroned by Arthur who then ruled the Underworld for fifty years as she became a depressed and bitter woman who drank in the local bar with Sir Mordred.

In the seventh season, the Wish Realm version of Cruella becomes an accomplice to Rumplestiltskin. Real Cruella can be seen in Regina's memories in "Leaving Storybrooke".

Cruella De Vil appears in the 2015 Disney Channel Original Movie Descendants. She is portrayed by actress Wendy Raquel Robinson.[21] Along with other villains, Cruella has been exiled to the Isle of the Lost, where she has lived for at least twenty years. She has a 14-year-old son, Carlos, whom she abuses and treats like a servant, making him sleep near the bear traps she uses to guard her fur coats.

A cast member portraying Cruella de Vil at Disneyland in 2015.

Cruella appears in The 101 Dalmatians Musical, the stage musical adaptation of the novel. She was portrayed by Rachel York;[22] however, the actress announced on her blog that she had stepped down from the role of Cruella de Vil to pursue other projects. The role was taken over by Sara Gettelfinger.[23]

Cruella is the only meetable character from the 101 Dalmatians franchise at the Disney Parks and Resorts, and is usually located in Fantasyland.

Cruella is also one of the Disney Villains Mickey fights in Disney's Hollywood Studios version of Fantasmic! Nighttime Show Spectacular in Walt Disney World. In Disney On Ice "Celebrations," Cruella was one of the Villains who appears during the Halloween Party.

Cruella first appears in Power Play, the fourth book of the young-adult book series by Ridley Pearson, Kingdom Keepers, as a member of the Overtakers, a group of Disney Villains. She is valuable to them since she knows the ways of the modern world. Cruella works with the Evil Queen to free Maleficent and Chernabog, while making sure the Keepers stay off their trail. Using DHI technology, she and the Queen head for the power facility and shut down the electricity, allowing Maleficent and Chernabog to escape their cells.

In the following book Shell Game, she assists the Queen and Maleficent in stealing Walt's original notes on Chernabog from the Archives. She then boards the Dream for the two-week cruise, along with the rest of the Overtakers. She commands the Lion King' hyenas, Happy and Howley, having them patrol the ship to keep the Keepers from finding Chernabog.

In the seventh book "The Insider", Cruella joins Tia Dalma, the Queen and Judge Doom's group in Toontown; she calls an army of animals to the area with a simple command. However, she is knocked out by Amanda's telekinesis. Finn later discovers Cruella had been living in a luxurious decommissioned train compartment and tries strangling her to death. She flees in terror, but has a wrench tossed at her. She is last seen slumped on the ground, bleeding.

In 1996, the BBC adapted Dodie Smith's Novel into a full-cast musical audio dramatization, starring Patricia Hodge as Cruella. This version is very faithful to the source material, but still has some differences from the original. Cruella and her husband do not leave England at the end of the story, and their fate is left unknown. Furthermore, the Dearlys never figure out that Cruella is behind the theft of the dogs. This version, however, is currently the only abridged or adapted version which still includes Cruella's husband, her love of heat and pepper, her cat, her zebra-striped car, and the fact her hair changes color at the end of the story; however, Cruella's husband argues with her more than in the novel, and Cruella's love of heat is at one point attributed to her simply being chilly/cold all the time, whereas in the book it is just a characteristic, among many, indicating she may not be fully human.

In this version, Cruella and the Baduns are given their own song, "It's Their Furs", which they sing together when Cruella orders the brothers to kill the pups. During the song, Cruella dictates the furs are to be labeled "Hers and Hers" instead of "His and Hers", implying that her husband will not get this first batch. However, it is later revealed that there is still the risk Mr. de Vil will sell Dalmatian furs down the line, prompting the Dalmatians and the White Persian Cat to destroy Mr. de Vil's fur stocks, as in the novel.

Amazon Audible later released this production as an Audiobook, available for streaming online or through the app. [24]

• The Queen song "Let Me Entertain You" features the lyrics "I'll Cruella de Vil You!"
• "The Cruel One" by Children 18:3 is a song about 101 Dalmatians, mentioning Cruella de Vil by name in the chorus.
• The Deadsy song "Cruella" is written about Cruella de Vil.
• Rock band The Replacements recorded a cover of the song "Cruella de Vil" for a compilation of Disney covers. It also appears on their 1997 compilation album, All for Nothing / Nothing for All.
• Spanish singer Alaska made a cover of song "Cruella de Vil" for the Spanish version of the 101 Dalmatians live-action film.
• Separate volumes of Disney's Greatest Hits include covers of "Cruella de Vil" the from the 1961 film, including one by teen singer and actress Selena Gomez, as well as a two covers (one big-band cover) by blues pianist and vocalist Dr. John.
• Mark Campbell (lead vocalist of Jack Mack and the Heart Attack) sings the funky "Cruella De Vil" in 102 Dalmatians, and on the 2000 Disney Soundtrack Album.
• American singer and performer Lady Gaga dressed up as Cruella de Vil for Halloween in 2010. The performer has had many outfits inspired by the villain.[27]
• American singer Melanie Martinez dyed half of her hair blonde, in the same vein as Cruella.
• Late American rapper XXXTentacion, inspired by Cruella, dyed half of his hair blonde.
• Cruella was briefly mentioned by Zelda, the villainess of The Swan Princess: The Mystery of the Enchanted Kingdom during her villain song along with the Wicked Witch of the West & Medusa.

In The Simpsons episode "Two Dozen and One Greyhounds", Mr. Burns plays the role of Cruella De Vil, but unlike her in the movies, where she steals the Dalmatian puppies to make them into fur coats, he steals Santa's Little Helper and the puppies he sired to make them into a tuxedo. And unlike Cruella, who has no hesitation in killing the puppies, Burns cannot bear to kill the puppies himself, because they are too cute. Declaring that he will never kill any animal that can perform good tricks again, Burns pays the Simpsons for the puppies, and he trains them to be world-class racing dogs. The episode also included a parody of the song, "Be Our Guest" from another Disney film Beauty and the Beast.

Coco LaBouche, the antagonist of the Rugrats 2000 spin-off film Rugrats in Paris, has some of the same characteristics as Cruella.

Cruella de Vil appeared in the MAD episode "2012 Dalmatians", a mash-up of One Hundred and One Dalmatians and 2012.

In the Jessie episode "101 Lizards", Mrs. Chesterfield plays a role similar to Cruella de Vil.

Cruella de Vil appeared in a Robot Chicken skit called "101 Dalmatian Reproduction" in the episode "Yogurt in a Bag". In this short, Roger and Anita apologize to her after realizing Dalmatians breed more than rabbits (even siblings) and willingly give the adopted 85 puppies back to Cruella. Cruella notes everyone is the hero of their own story, earning some ire from Roger and Anita.