<Tr> <Th> Voiced by </Th> <Td> Richard White </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Gender </Th> <Td> Male </Td> </Tr> <P> Gaston is a fictional character who appears in Walt Disney Pictures' 30th animated feature film Beauty and the Beast (1991). Voiced by American actor and singer Richard White, Gaston is an arrogant hunter whose unrequited feelings for the intellectual Belle drive him to murder his adversary, the Beast, once he realizes she cares for him instead . Gaston serves as a foil personality to the Beast, who was once as vain as Gaston prior to his transformation . </P> <P> An original character who is not present in the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale by Jeanne - Marie Leprince de Beaumont upon which the film is based, Gaston was inspired by Avenant, a character filmmaker Jean Cocteau created specifically for his 1946 film adaptation of the story . Created by screenwriter Linda Woolverton, who based the character on some of the ex-boyfriends she dated in her past, Gaston was developed specifically for Disney's adaptation of Beauty and the Beast because the studio felt that the film could benefit from a strong villain, who is lacking in the original fairy tale . As the character evolved from a nonthreatening aristocrat into an arrogant hunter relentlessly seeking Belle's hand in marriage, Gaston ultimately replaced a female relative of Belle's who the filmmakers had originally created to serve as the film's villain . </P>

Who played gaston in beauty and the beast 1991