Milhouse Voice Actress Pamela Hayden Retires From ‘The Simpsons’
Everything’s coming up Milhouse — including retirement.
After 35 years of exceptional service to the comedy community, legendary voice actress Pamela Hayden has announced her imminent retirement from The Simpsons. Like many of the original Simpsons voice actors, Hayden, 70, plays numerous roles on the show, including Jimbo Jones, Rod (and sometimes Todd) Flanders and the fan-favorite elementary school sad sack Milhouse Van Houten, best known for his bone-dry cuffs and unrequited love of Lisa Simpson that leads him to dangerous places.
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Hayden’s final performance on The Simpsons will be in this Sunday’s new episode “Treehouse of Horror Presents: Simpsons Wicked This Way Comes,” and, to celebrate Hayden’s many years of hard work and dedication, the official Simpsons Twitter account posted a touching tribute. Today, everybody likes Milhouse.
In a statement for Deadline, Hayden further expressed her gratitude for the gig that lasted for most of her career in voice acting, telling fans, “The time has come for me to hang up my microphone, but how do I say goodbye to The Simpsons?……not easily. It’s been an honor and a joy to have worked on such a funny, witty and groundbreaking show, and to give voice to Milhouse and Jimbo Jones, Rod Flanders, Janey, Malibu Stacy and many others.”
The Simpsons creator Matt Groening also offered his thoughts during this bittersweet moment in Simpsons history, saying of Hayden’s most famous character, “Bart needed someone to talk to in the school cafeteria. We named him Milhouse because that was the most unfortunate name a kid could have.” Groening added of the actress, “Pamela gave us tons of laughs with Milhouse, the hapless kid with the biggest nose in Springfield. She made Milhouse hilarious and real, and we will miss her.”
“I’ll always have a special place in my heart for that blue-haired 10-year-old boy with glasses,” Hayden finished.
The news of Hayden’s departure also comes with the announcement that The Simpsons will look to re-cast her voice roles and keep Milhouse on the roster of core Simpsons characters. With other OG Simpsons voice actors well into retirement age — Dan Castellaneta is 67 years old, as is Nancy Cartwright, and Julie Kavner is already 74 — Hayden’s retirement gives us insight into the show’s plans for the future, if and when they lose more cast members.
Apparently, the motto for The Simpsons this many decades into its run is still “The show must go on!” Though, today, I prefer, “This is where I come to cry.”
