Jim Cummings

James Jonah Cummings (born November 3, 1952; age 71), known professionally as Jim Cummings, in American voice actor who has appeared in over 400 roles. He is the current voice of Winnie the Pooh since 1988, Tigger since 1989, the Tasmanian Devil since 1991, and Pete since 1992. He has also appeared in other animated series, with roles on Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers, Darkwing Duck, Jungle Cubs, CatDog, The Powerpuff Girls, and others.

Biography
Born in Youngstown, Ohio, Cummings moved to New Orleans when he was young. It was there that he worked on Mardi Gras floats and as a door-to-door salesman. He then moved to California, where he worked odd jobs before he became a voice actor.

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 Sterling Holloway as the voice of Winnie the Pooh in 1988. He was the understudy for Paul Winchell as Tigger, before fully replacing him as the character in 2000's The Tigger Movie. In 1991, he was hired by Warner Bros. Animation to voice Taz 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 along with providing the voice for Ed the hyena. He also provided Scar's voice in a brief nightmare sequence in The Lion King II: Simba's Pride. Cummings would later be hired as the singing double for Russell Means in Pocahontas, the speaking voice of Kekata in Pocahontas, and the singing voice of Grigori Rasputin in Anastasia.

In commercials, he voiced Smokey Bear in several commercials, ads, and promos from 1993 to 2006.

In 2018, he became the first voice performer of animation to reprise his role(s) 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 "[a]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."

Trivia

 * He is not related to fellow voice actor Brian Cummings.
 * Cummings' favorite Disney character voice roles are Pete (main favorite role), Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Darkwing Duck, Ray, and Hondo Ohnaka.
 * Jim Cummings had been paired up with fellow actor Tom Kenny in several shows, such as The Powerpuff Girls and CatDog. Thus, they were reunited in a way when Cummings voiced Pooh and Tigger and Kenny voiced Rabbit in the 2011 Winnie the Pooh film.