Jim Cummings

**James Jonah "Jim" Cummings** is an American voice actor and singer, who has appeared in over 400 roles. He is known for voicing Darkwing Duck, Dr. Eggman from Sonic the Hedgehog, and Pete, Winnie the Pooh and Tigger, and the Tasmanian Devil.

## Biography

### Personal life

Jim Cummings was born on November 3, 1952 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 later married and moved to Anaheim, California, where he managed a video store in the early 1980's, before launching his voice-acting career in late 1984. Cummings and his wife Stephanie have two daughters as well as two older children from a previous marriage.

### Career

Some of Cummings' earliest vocal work was at Disney, where he replaced Hal Smith as the voice of Winnie-the-Pooh in 1988 (Smith had taken over the role from longtime actor Sterling Holloway in 1981). He began voicing Tigger in 1990, taking over for Paul Winchell (though Winchell voiced Tigger four more times, the last time being in February 1999) after Winchell died in 2005. In 1991, he ventured to Warner Bros. Animation and began voicing Tasmanian Devil on the animated series Taz-Mania (he would voice the character on other Warner Brothers shows, such as Animaniacs, and reprised the role in 2008 in Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas).

At Walt Disney Studios, he contributed to many of their televised animated shows: Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears (taking over the character of Zummi Gummi after Paul Winchell's departure from the role), DuckTales, Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, Darkwing Duck (as the lead character), TaleSpin (as Don Karnage and Louie), Goof Troop (as Pete, a role that would carry him into many other Disney shows), Bonkers, Aladdin, Gargoyle, Timon & Pumbaa, The Legend of Tarzan and House of Mouse, and animated films such as Hercules, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Pocahontas. He voiced Bering and Chilkoot in the 2006 direct-to-DVD film Brother Bear 2 and Razoul in the 1994 Aladdin direct-to-video sequal The Return of Jarar.

When actor Jeremy Irons, the voice of Scar in The Lion King, developed vocal problems during recording of the song "Be Prepared", Cummings was chosen to replace him for the rest of the song.

Cummings was the only original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles voice actor to return for the 2007 TMNT film, having previously appeared in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the 1987 series) as Leatherhead, Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time. In 1995 he voiced the main villain Steele in Universal and Amblin Entertainment's Balto. He also had vocal roles in The Nuttiest Nutcracker, Shrek and Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius.

Cummings had provided voices for video games, television commercials, and movie trailers, and was one of the official announcers for Kids' WB!, promo announcer for Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, as well as the official spokesperson for the current Cheez-It commercials and some current Weather Cannel commercials (most notably the Wake Up With Al ones). He did vocal work in a Charmin Ultra toilet paper commercial, echoing his role as Winnie the Pooh. He has done the voice of Minsc of Baldur's Gate/Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn and Drizzt Do'Urden in the first Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance game. He is prominently displayed in the credits of Kingdom Hearts as Pooh, Tigger, and Pete. Cummings provided the voices for Bad Mr. Frosty, Hougan, and Sumo Santa in ClayFighter 63⅓.

Cummings has made some vocal performances using his voice at normal pitch for some youger looking characters like Witterqick from Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light and Galtorian Ackar in Bionicle: The Legend Reborn.

He also voiced Papa Smurf and Gargamel on the TV Funhouse sketch "The Smurfette Show" on Saturday Night Live's season 28's premiere episode.

## Roles

ShockerMan-SpiderMan-Spider
(Alternate reality)Chameleon

## Credits

### Actor

#### Shocker

* The Alien Costume, Part II
* The Alien Costume, Part III
* The Insidious Six
* Battle of the Insidious Six

#### Man-Spider

* Duel of the Hunters
* Blade, the Vampire Hunter

## Trivia

* Jim Cummings provided a few grunts for the Chameleon in the episode Six Forgotten Warriors, Chapter V: The Price of Heroism but did not have any speaking lines as the character.
* Jim Cummings later voiced Crusher Hogan in The Spectacular Spider-Man and Ghost and Hammerhead in Marvel's Spider-Man.