Who was Morgan Lofting? Voice of G.I. Joe's Baroness and Spider-Man's Aunt May dies at 84

Morgan Lofting, renowned for voicing the iconic villain Baroness in the G.I. Joe animated movies and TV series, has passed away at the age of 84.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lofting’s agents revealed that she died unexpectedly on Wednesday, November 27, at her residence in Burbank, California. “As one of the 10 founding actors at our agency, she meant the world to us and our company,” stated CelebWorx agents Nery Lemus and Christopher Arsaga.

Lofting, born on February 2, 1940, in Cincinnati, Ohio, began her voice acting career with her role as Princess Invidia in Star Blazers, an American adaptation of Japanese anime, which aired from 1979 to 1984. She also lent her voice to Aunt May and Black Cat in an animated Spider-Man series that ran in syndication from 1981 to 1982.

In 1983, Lofting first portrayed The Baroness, Cobra’s strategic and intelligent officer, in the miniseries G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero – The M.A.S.S. Device, giving the character a distinct European accent.

“You’re handed generally a sketch — like a black-and-white sketch of what [the character is] gonna look like, which is extremely helpful — and there was probably a character background, and they must have said something about an accent,” Lofting explained in a 2016 interview with Creative Continuity. “But you read this, and you start to get ideas, and then you go somewhere out in the field somewhere, and you work on your voice because you don’t want other actors to hear what you’re intending to do. And somehow I came up with this mid-European sound. I have no idea where this came from. There is no country where anybody speaks like this.”

In the same conversation, Lofting credited her memorable “Cobra!” shout as a key factor in securing the role. “I just let loose with the ‘Cobra!’” she shared. “[Fellow G.I. Joe voice actor] Mike Bell used to say that there was blood on the control room window when I finished the ‘Cobra!’”