Jim Cummings

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 1989, 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 reprise the voice in 2006 in Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas).

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 would later be hired as the singing double for Russell Means in "Pocahontas" and Christopher Lloyd in "Anastasia".

Personal 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. Cummings has two daughters with Stephanie Cummings, as well as two older children from a previous marriage.

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