Alfred Molina Has A New Role: The First Gentleman Of Walt Disney Animation Studios
In Frozen II, British actor Alfred Molina voiced King Agnarr, the father of Anna and Elsa, but last weekend he gained another royal role at Disney: the first gentleman of Walt Disney Animation Studios.
Molina married Jennifer Lee, 49, writer and co-director of Disney’s Frozen franchise. Lee is also the chief creative officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios, taking over the role from John Lasseter in 2018.
Lee was introduced to Molina, 68, by Jonathan Groff, the actor who voices Kristoff in the Frozen films. In a series of photos posted to Lee’s Instagram, Groff appears to be officiating the wedding ceremony:
This is the second marriage for both Lee and Molina. Lee’s first marriage ended in divorce. She has one daughter, Agatha, from that marriage. Molina’s wife of 34 years passed away from Alzheimer’s disease in 2020.
In a 2016 interview with the Guardian, Molina said that his “marriage is in a strange place now because my wife is in a very advanced stage of Alzheimer’s,” and that he was attending support groups and therapy for spouses who were experiencing similar situations.
Lee spoke about her relationship to “Fred” with the New York Times in 2019, saying, “I just feel very lucky . . . I’m very happy in my family life and he’s very caring and very good to my daughter.”
While Molina is best known for his work in live-action film and on the stage, he has started to do more voice acting work in recent years, appearing in series like Dreamworks Dragons, Harley Quinn, Solar Opposites, Infinity Train, Monsters at Work, 3Below: Tales of Arcadia, and Summer Camp Island, as well as the feature-length projects Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans and Ralph Breaks the Internet.