# Jimmy MacDonald (sound effects artist)

John James MacDonald (May 19, 1906 – February 1, 1991) was an American foley artist and voice actor. He was the original head of the Disney sound-effects department, and was also the second official voice of Mickey Mouse from 1947 to 1976 after Walt Disney stopped playing the character and before Wayne Allwine became the third voice of Mickey in 1977.

## Early life

MacDonald was born on May 19, 1906, in Crewe, Cheshire. His parents were Richard William MacDonald and Minnie Hall. The family emigrated to America when MacDonald was a month old. They travelled via the SS Haverford from Liverpool, England, arriving in Pennsylvania 15 days later.

## Career
### Sound effects

As a young man, MacDonald landed a job as a musician on the Dollar Steam Ship Lines, which in 1934 led to an opportunity to record music for a Disney cartoon. He went on to secure a permanent contract with Disney, becoming head of the sound department.
In addition to directing sounds for animated shorts as aurally complicated as Mickey's Trailer (1938), he developed many original inventions and contraptions to achieve expressive sounds for characters such as Casey Jr., the circus-train engine from Dumbo (1941); Evinrude the dragonfly from The Rescuers (1977); the bees in Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966); and Buzz-buzz (later called "Spike"), the bee that gets the best of Donald Duck in his 1950s short films. He also made the sound effects of Tick Tock the crocodile from Peter Pan (1953) and Dragon Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty (1959) by using castanets.
MacDonald also added voice effects, including on-screen humming for Kirk Douglas in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954).
Most of his effects are available on Cartoon Trax Volume 1, from The Hollywood Edge, which was released in 1992. A few of his other effects showed up on other non-Disney sound libraries, such as the International Sound Effects Library, BBC Sound Effects Library, and the Hanna-Barbera Sound Effects Library, both from Sound Ideas. Some other releases containing MacDonald's sound effects include a few specialty sound-effect record releases from Disneyland Records, most notably Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House.
At the time of his death, he was preparing to work on the sounds for the Splash Mountain attraction in Tokyo Disneyland and Walt Disney World.

### Voice acting

James MacDonald did the first test yodeling for the dwarfs in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) before they brought in professional yodelers as well as doing some sounds for Dopey, such as his hiccupping and sobbing.
By 1947, Walt Disney was getting too busy and hoarse from smoking to continue voicing Mickey Mouse, so he offered the job to MacDonald. MacDonald voiced Mickey Mouse until his retirement in 1976, when he was replaced by his sound-effects protégée, Wayne Allwine, for The New Mickey Mouse Club. MacDonald returned to voice Mickey again, though, for an appearance at the 50th Academy Awards in 1978 and the opening of Star Tours at Disneyland in 1987. Despite formally retiring, MacDonald remained involved with several Disney productions; he voiced Evinrude from The Rescuers (1977) and was often consulted for sound-effects projects.
MacDonald was the original voice actor for Chip, one half of the duo Chip and Dale. He provided the voice of Lumpjaw in Fun and Fancy Free, Jaq and Gus the mice and Bruno the dog in Cinderella (1950), the Dormouse in Alice in Wonderland (1951), Humphrey the Bear, the howling of the dogs at the pound (along with Thurl Ravenscroft) in Lady and the Tramp (1955), the Wolf in The Sword in the Stone (1963), and the hyena in Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971). He appeared in the film Toby Tyler (1960) as the Circus Band Drummer, but was uncredited and appeared in Fantasia (1940) as one of the musicians
MacDonald played drums in the Firehouse Five Plus Two jazz band. He played with the band on and off from its inception until it disbanded in the early 1970s.

## Personal life

MacDonald married Sarah Roberta Cullen in 1936, they remained married until his death in 1991.

## Death

MacDonald died of heart failure at his home in Glendale, California, on February 1, 1991, at the age of 84. He was buried in Glendale's Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery.

## Filmography
### Sound-effects work
#### Film

| Year | Title | Position | Notes |
| 1937 | Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs | Sound effects | Uncredited |
| 1938 | Mickey's Trailer | Sound effects | Uncredited |
| 1940 | Pinocchio | Sound effects | Uncredited |
| 1941 | The Reluctant Dragon | Sound effects | Uncredited |
| 1941 | Baggage Buster | Sound effects | Uncredited |
| 1941 | Dumbo | Sound effects | Uncredited |
| 1942 | Bambi | Sound effects | Uncredited |
| 1942 | Saludos Amigos | Sound effects | Uncredited |
| 1943 | Victory Through Air Power | Sound effects | Uncredited |
| 1944 | The Three Caballeros | Sound effects | Uncredited |
| 1946 | Make Mine Music | Sound effects | Uncredited |
| 1946 | Song of the South | Sound effects | Uncredited |
| 1947 | Fun and Fancy Free | Sound effects | Uncredited |
| 1948 | Melody Time | Sound effects | Uncredited |
| 1948 | Inferior Decorator | Sound effects | Uncredited |
| 1948 | Seal Island | Sound effects | Documentary film, uncredited |
| 1948 | So Dear to My Heart | Sound effects | Uncredited |
| 1949 | Honey Harvester | Sound effects | Uncredited |
| 1949 | The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad | Sound effects | Uncredited |
| 1950 | Cinderella | Sound effects | Uncredited |
| 1950 | Beaver Valley | Sound effects | Documentary film, uncredited |
| 1951 | Nature's Half Acre | Sound effects | Documentary film, uncredited |
| 1951 | Alice in Wonderland | Sound effects | Uncredited |
| 1952 | The Olympic Elk | Sound effects | Documentary film, uncredited |
| 1952 | Water Birds | Sound effects | Documentary film, uncredited |
| 1953 | Peter Pan | Sound effects | Uncredited |
| 1953 | Bear Country | Sound effects | Documentary film, uncredited |
| 1953 | Powlers of the Evergladers | Sound effects | Documentary film, uncredited |
| 1953 | The Living Desert | Sound effects | Documentary film, uncredited |
| 1954 | The Vanishing Prairie | Sound effects | Documentary film, uncredited |
| 1954 | 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea | Sound effects | Uncredited |
| 1955 | Lady and the Tramp | Sound effects | Uncredited |
| 1955 | The African Lion | Sound effects | Documentary film, uncredited |
| 1956 | Secret of Life | Sound effects | Documentary film, uncredited |
| 1957 | Perri | Sound effects | Uncredited |
| 1958 | White Wilderness | Sound effects | Documentary film, uncredited |
| 1959 | Sleeping Beauty | Sound effects | Uncredited |
| 1960 | Jungle Cat | Sound effects | Documentary film, uncredited |
| 1961 | One Hundred and One Dalmatians | Sound effects | Uncredited |
| 1963 | The Sword in the Stone | Sound effects | Uncredited |
| 1964 | Mary Poppins | Sound effects | Uncredited |
| 1966 | Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree | Sound effects | Uncredited |
| 1967 | The Jungle Book | Sound effects | Uncredited |
| 1968 | Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day | Sound effects | Uncredited |
| 1968 | The Love Bug | Sound effects | Uncredited |
| 1970 | The Aristocats | Sound effects | Uncredited |
| 1971 | Bedknobs and Broomsticks | Sound effects | Uncredited |
| 1973 | Robin Hood | Sound effects | Uncredited |
| 1974 | Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too | Sound effects | Uncredited |
| 1977 | The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh | Sound effects | Uncredited |
| 1977 | The Rescuers | Sound effects | Uncredited |
| 1979 | The Black Hole | Sound effects | Special sound effects |

### Music

| Year | Title | Position | Notes |
| 1964 | Mary Poppins | Assistant conductor | Credited as James MacDonald |
| 1968 | The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band | Assistant conductor | Credited as James MacDonald |
| 1971 | Bedknobs and Broomsticks | Assistant conductor | Credited as James MacDonald |

### Acting credits
#### Film

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1936 | The Cowboy Star | Still Photographer | Uncredited |
| 1937 | Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs | Dopey (voice, hiccuping and crying) | Uncredited |
| 1940 | Donald's Vacation | Various voices | Uncredited |
| 1940 | Fantasia | Percussionist | Uncredited |
| 1941 | The Reluctant Dragon | Sound effects man | Uncredited |
| 1942 | Out of the Frying Pan Into the Firing Line | Butcher (voice) | Uncredited |
| 1943 | Private Pluto | Chip (voice) | Uncredited |
| 1946 | Squatter's Rights | Chip (voice) | Uncredited |
| 1947 | Fun and Fancy Free | Bongo, Lumpjaw (voice) | Uncredited |
| 1947 | Chip an' Dale | Chip (voice) | Uncredited |
| 1948 | Mickey Down Under | Mickey Mouse (voice) | Uncredited |
| 1948 | Pluto's Purchase | Mickey Mouse (voice) | Uncredited |
| 1948 | Three for Breakfast | Chip (voice) | Uncredited |
| 1948 | Mickey and the Seal | Mickey Mouse (voice) | Uncredited |
| 1949 | Pueblo Pluto | Mickey Mouse (voice) | Uncredited |
| 1949 | Winter Storage | Chip (voice) | Uncredited |
| 1949 | All in a Nutshell | Chip (voice) | Uncredited |
| 1949 | Toy Tinkers | Chip (voice) | Uncredited |
| 1950 | Cinderella | Jaq, Gus, Bruno (voices) | |
| 1950 | Crazy Over Daisy | Chip (voice) | Uncredited |
| 1950 | Trailer Horn | Chip (voice) | Uncredited |
| 1950 | Suspense | Jeff | Episode: "Wisteria Cottage" |
| 1950 | Food for Feudin' | Chip (voice) | Uncredited |
| 1950 | Out on a Limb | Chip (voice) | Uncredited |
| 1951 | Chicken in the Rough | Chip (voice) | Uncredited |
| 1951 | Corn Chips | Chip (voice) | Uncredited |
| 1951 | Plutopia | Mickey Mouse (voice) | Uncredited |
| 1951 | Test Pilot Donald | Chip (voice) | Uncredited |
| 1951 | Alice in Wonderland | Dormouse (voice) | |
| 1951 | R'coon Dawg | Mickey Mouse (voice) | Uncredited |
| 1951 | Out of Scale | Chip (voice) | Uncredited |
| 1952 | Donald Applecore | Chip (voice) | Uncredited |
| 1952 | Lambert the Sheepish Lion | Wolf (voice) | Uncredited |
| 1952 | Two Chips and a Miss | Chip (voice) | Uncredited |
| 1952 | Pluto's Party | Mickey Mouse (voice) | Uncredited |
| 1952 | Pluto's Christmas Tree | Mickey Mouse, Chip (voices) | Uncredited |
| 1953 | The Simple Things | Mickey Mouse (voice) | Uncredited |
| 1953 | Rugged Bear | Humphrey the Bear (voice) | Uncredited |
| 1953 | Working for Peanuts | Chip (voice) | Uncredited |
| 1954 | The Lone Chipmunks | Chip (voice) | Uncredited |
| 1954 | Dragon Around | Chip (voice) | Uncredited |
| 1954 | Grin and Bear It | Humphrey the Bear (voice) | Uncredited |
| 1954 | Social Lion | Lion (voice) | Uncredited |
| 1954 | 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea | Ned Land humming "Whale of a Tale" (voice) | Uncredited |
| 1955 | Bearly Asleep | Humphrey the Bear (voice) | Uncredited |
| 1955 | Beezy Bear | Humphrey the Bear (voice) | Uncredited |
| 1955 | Up a Tree | Chip (voice) | Uncredited |
| 1956 | Chips Ahoy | Chip (voice) | Uncredited |
| 1956 | Hooked Bear | Humphrey the Bear (voice) | Uncredited |
| 1956 | In the Bag | Humphrey the Bear (voice) | Uncredited |
| 1959 | Noah's Ark | Animal sounds (voice) | |
| 1960 | Toby Tyler or Ten Weeks with a Circus | Drummer | Uncredited |
| 1963 | The Sword in the Stone | Wolf (voice) | Uncredited |
| 1966 | Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree | Bees (voice) | Uncredited |
| 1967 | The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin | Saloon Percussionist | Uncredited |
| 1967 | The Jungle Book | Shere Khan, Bagheera (voice, roaring) | Uncredited |
| 1968 | The Mickey Mouse Anniversary Show | Mickey Mouse (voice) | Uncredited |
| 1971 | Bedknobs and Broomsticks | Hyena (voice) | Uncredited |
| 1977 | The Rescuers | Evinrude, Brutus and Nero (voice) |
| 1981 | The Fox and the Hound | The Bear (voice) | Uncredited |

#### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1955–1968 | The Magical World of Disney | Mickey Mouse, Chip, Lumpjaw (voices) | Episodes: "The Mickey Mouse Anniversary Show", "This Is Your Life", "Pluto's Day", "Adventures of Mickey Mouse", "Jiminy Cricket Presents Bongo" |
| 1989 | Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers | Humphrey the Bear (voice) | Episode: "Bearing Up Baby" |

#### Theme park attractions

| Year | Title | Role |
| 1971 | Mickey Mouse Revue | Mickey Mouse (voice) |