List of Haunted Mansion Characters - Madame Leota

Madame Leota

Madame Leota is one of the iconic characters of the ride. She is the spirit of a psychic medium, conducting an otherworldy séance in an attempt to summon spirits and assist them in materializing. Her ghostly head appears within a crystal ball on a table in the middle of her dark chamber, from which she speaks her incantations. Musical instruments and furniture levitate and make noises in response. She was played by Leota Toombs (face) and Eleanor Audley (voice). Before Leota Toombs was chosen for the face of the medium in the crystal ball, Imagineer Harriet Burns was tested for the part. Leota Toombs also played the Ghost Hostess who appears at the end of the attraction, though she and Madame Leota are not meant to be the same character.

In 2002, a tombstone for Madame Leota debuted at Walt Disney World's Mansion. The epitaph reads: "Dear sweet Leota, beloved by all. In regions beyond now, but having a ball." The face on the tombstone periodically shifts and opens its eyes. In 2005, a new addition to the séance room—Madame Leota's spell-book (Necronomicon: Book of the Dead)—arrived at the Disneyland Mansion. The book is opened to page 1313, on which Leota's incantations are listed as "a spell to bring to your eyes and ears one who is bound in limbo" (a reference to the Disney film Blackbeard's Ghost). On page 1312 is a picture of the Grim Reaper holding a scythe, with the same leering face as the Hatbox Ghost and the skeletal hitchhiker. In 2006, Disneyland's Madame Leota was given the ability to float above the table in mid-air, via wires. This effect, along with the spell-book, was installed into the Walt Disney World Mansion during the 2007 Re-Haunting. In the Servants Quarters (Walt Disney World), there is a bell for Madame Leota's Boudoir. Also at Walt Disney World nearby the Mansion in Liberty Square is a merchandise cart themed as Madame Leota's gypsy wagon.

During Haunted Mansion Holiday at Disneyland, she was played by Leota Toombs' daughter Kim Irvine (face) and Suzanne Blakeslee (voice).

In Phantom Manor at Disneyland Paris, Madame Leota was played by Oona Lind. Her incantations are different from those of The Haunted Mansion, and they alternate between English and French.

In the 2003 film, Madame Leota was portrayed by Jennifer Tilly. Leota's chamber in the film resembles the inside of a gypsy tent. The objects in the room levitate, including the chair in which Jim Evers (Eddie Murphy) is seated, sending him on a wild ride. Leota helps the Evers family break the curse of Gracey Manor, and apparently joins the family, as she is seen in the backseat of their car with them at the end of the movie.

In the comics, Leota was killed mid-trance by William Gracey, and doesn't realize that she's dead.

In the video game, Leota accompanies the protagonist Zeke Halloway on his quest through the Mansion. Early in life, she discovered she had a gift for communicating with the spirit world. One day, the Order of Shadows learned of Leota's talents, and she was tricked into joining them. They told her that they could increase her abilities. Fortunately, she was rescued by monks, and awakened to the Order's true evil nature. From then on, Leota vowed to use her abilities to aid the cause of good, and joined the Brotherhood of Souls. She first came to the Mansion in the spring of 1855. "That was shortly after the owners first felt the evil presence here... While the owners were away, I was ambushed by forces greater than mere evil spirits. In the end, Atticus bound me within my own crystal ball, as you see me now," Leota tells Zeke.

In the Haunted Mansion level of the Xbox 360 game Kinect Disneyland Adventures, a malevolent Madame Leota (voiced by Suzanne Blakeslee) is encountered upon entering the Mansion, in the Stretching Room. She scolds the player for trespassing and interrupting her "grim incantation." She then curses the player "to regions beyond with no hope of escape." Later, she appears in the séance room. When hit with a beam of light, she screams and disappears, leaving coins.

The video game Epic Mickey has its own version of the character, named Madame Leona, who is the librarian of Lonesome Manor.

In a coloring book based on the Walt Disney World Mansion, Leota is the wife of the owner Mr. Gool.

A fortune teller named Madame Blackheart appears in the book Enter if you Dare!: Scary Tales from the Haunted Mansion. In a macabre twist on the Madame Leota character, Blackheart's decapitated head is enclosed inside her crystal ball, and her headless body walks the earth. Ezekiel, a sinister old man employed by Madame Blackheart, mentions that the crystal ball is the source of her power.

A character inspired by Madame Leota appears in the animated film Casper's Scare School.