Jim Cummings


James Jonah Cummings is an American voice actor and singer, who has appeared in almost 400 roles, including Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, and the Tasmanian Devil.

Early life

Born in Youngstown, Ohio, Cummings relocated to New Orleans, where he designed and painted Mardi Gras floats, worked as a river boat deck hand and sang and played drums in the regionally-successful rock band Fusion. He attended Immaculate Conception and St. Columba grade schools as well as Ursuline High School and graduated from there in 1970.
He later married and moved to Anaheim, California, where he managed a video store in the early 1980s, before launching his voice-acting career in late 1984.

Career

Cummings's first voice role was as Lionel the Lion and Aunt Fira in Dumbo's Circus. Some of Cummings' earliest vocal work was at Disney, where he replaced Hal Smith as the voice of Winnie the Pooh in 1988. He began partially replacing Paul Winchell as Tigger, before fully replacing him as the character in 2000's The Tigger Movie. In 1991, he ventured to Warner Bros. Animation to voice the Tasmanian Devil on the animated series Taz-Mania and would continue to voice the character in various Looney Tunes media.
When actor Jeremy Irons, the voice of Scar in The Lion King, developed vocal problems during recording of the song "Be Prepared", Cummings replaced him on the remainder of the track. He also provided Scar's voice in a brief dream sequence in . Cummings would later be hired as the singing double for Russell Means in Pocahontas and Christopher Lloyd in Anastasia.
In 2018, he became the first voice performer of animation to reprise his role for a live-action Disney film, reprising the roles of Winnie the Pooh and Tigger for the film Christopher Robin. His performance as Pooh was particularly praised by Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair, who felt it was "Oscar-worthy" and said that "s Winnie the Pooh … the veteran voice actor gives such sweet, rumpled, affable life to the wistful bear of literary renown that it routinely breaks the heart."

Personal life

Cummings has two daughters with Stephanie Cummings, as well as two older children from a previous marriage. Cummings and Stephanie divorced in 2011, after ten years of marriage.

Filmography

Film

YearTitleRoleNotes
1987The Garbage Pail Kids MovieGreaser Greg and Nat Nerd
1988Who Framed Roger RabbitBullet #2
1994Cabin BoyCupcake
1998Small SoldiersOcula
1998Pelican
2018Christopher RobinWinnie-the-Pooh and Tigger

Television