She later performed on Broadway and in films and television, including her role as Aunt Bethany in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989).

[1] Although she wanted to be an entertainer, her parents, who were Orthodox Jews, actively discouraged her from doing so, at one point forcing her to leave the Theatre Guild school.

Nevertheless, at the age of 17, Questel won a talent contest held at the RKO Fordham Theatre in the Bronx by imitating actress and singer Helen Kane.

Along with her voice work, and occasional on-camera appearance in Paramount shorts, Questel also attended Columbia University,[1] where she studied drama.

[3] When Hanna-Barbera began making the All New Popeye cartoons for television in 1978, Questel auditioned for the role of Olive Oyl but lost out to Marilyn Schreffler.

[4] Starting in 1938, Margie Hines, who was the original voice of Betty Boop, replaced Mae Questel when production made the transition from New York to the Miami Studio, Florida.

She continued to provide the voices of Betty Boop and Olive Oyl in commercials, television specials and elsewhere for the rest of her life.

In 1961, she was seen as a middle-aged bride in Jerry Lewis' It's Only Money,[2] one of Fanny Brice's mother's card-playing friends at the start of the film Funny Girl in 1968, and as the "Jewish Mama from Hell" in New York Stories in 1989 in Woody Allen's segment titled "Oedipus Wrecks";[2] she had earlier sung the song "Chameleon Days" on the soundtrack for Allen's film Zelig in 1983.

[10] In 1973, Questel had a role in the short-lived ABC television sitcom The Corner Bar,[1] but she achieved perhaps her greatest visibility in television commercials, notably playing "Aunt Bluebell" in ads for Scott Towels from 1971 to 1979, and appeared in spots for Playtex, Folger's Coffee and others.