Morgan Lofting, iconic voice of 'G.I. Joe's' baroness, passes away at 84

The famous voice actress Morgan Lofting passed away. She was most recognised for her role as the Baroness, the vicious Cobra senior intelligence officer who caused mayhem in G.I. Joe animated series and films. She was 84.

According to Nery Lemus and Christopher Arsaga of CelebWorx, Lofting's agents, she passed away suddenly on Wednesday at her Burbank home. 

In a statement, they stated, "She meant the world to us and our company as one of the 10 founding actors at our agency."

The actress also provided the voices of Aunt May and the Black Cat for a Spider-Man series that ran from 1981 to 1982, Moonracer and Firestar for a Transformers series that aired from 1985, and the Arnold Schwarzenegger-starring Total Recall (1990).

The dark-haired Baroness, a seductive master of disguise, a weapon and hand-to-hand combat expert, wearing a tight black leather costume and black-rimmed eyeglasses, was given a European accent by Lofting.

In 1983, 1984, and 1989, she voiced the terrorist in the G.I. Joe miniseries; in the 1986 TV film G.I. Joe: Arise, Serpentor, Arise!; in the 1987 straight-to-video G.I. Joe: The Movie; and for four seasons of two shows that aired in 1985–86 and 1990–91.

In a 2017 interview, she recounted that when she would yell, "Cobraaaa!" her co-star Mike Bell would joke that there was "blood on the control room window."

She was amazed that the shows she had worked on years before were still relevant during that conversation.

“You take your money, and you go home, and then 30 years later someone says, ‘Hi, I want you to meet my spouse and my children, and you were so important to me when I was growing up,’” she said. 

“You begin to realise that these characters help people through their lives.”

Lofting, who was born in Cincinnati on February 2, 1940, also starred in the 1988 movie The Night Before, which starred Keanu Reeves and Lori Loughlin, and four episodes of the CBS primetime soap opera Knots Landing in 1986–87.

Lofting, who was born in Cincinnati on February 2, 1940, also starred in the 1988 movie The Night Before, which starred Keanu Reeves and Lori Loughlin, and four episodes of the CBS primetime soap opera Knots Landing in 1986–87.