Jim Cummings

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jim Cummings
Birth name James Jonah Cummings
Born November 3, 1952 (1952-11-03) (age 55)
Flag of the United States Youngstown, Ohio
Occupation(s) Voice actor

James Jonah "Jim" Cummings (born November 3, 1952[1] in Youngstown, Ohio) is an American voice actor.

Contents

[edit] Early Years

Born in Youngstown, Ohio, Cummings relocated to New Orleans, where he worked on the assembly of Mardi Gras floats. He later moved to Anaheim, California, where he worked "odd jobs" until the early 1980s. Cummings' first opportunity as a voice actor came in 1983, when the failing health of longtime Winnie the Pooh voice actor Sterling Holloway prompted an open call for Holloway's replacement for the animated feature, Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore. While Hal Smith (best known as "Otis" in The Andy Griffith Show) took over for that particular project, Cummings proved to be an uncanny substitute for Holloway in a subsequent feature, New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. He also changed Pooh's voice by giving him more depth and an English accent.

[edit] Career

Cummings is among the most celebrated voice-over actors in movie history. His skills as a mimic have earned him scores of opportunities at Walt Disney Productions, in particular. At Disney, Cummings not only replaced the ailing Holloway as the voice of both "Winnie the Pooh" and "Kaa", but also took over as the voice of "Tigger", when well-known ventriloquist and voice actor Paul Winchell retired. Then, when British actor Jeremy Irons experienced problems with his vocal cords during production of The Lion King, Cummings was hired to imitate Irons's voice for the last few lines of the song, "Be Prepared". He also duplicated the voice of actor Christopher Lloyd for the song, "In the Dark of the Night" in the animated film, Anastasia. While Cummings provided a rendition of Louis Prima's voice for "King Louie" in Talespin, this provoked a controversy with Prima's widow.

Cummings is the only original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles voice actor to return for the 2007 movie. His first three TMNT appearances were Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time. The 2007 movie was Cummings' sixth computer-animated movie appearance. His first five computer-animated movie appearances included Antz, The Nuttiest Nutcracker, Shrek, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, and Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas; and his latest CG movie appearance is Bee Movie.

In the course of two decades, Cummings' career as a voice actor has taken him from bit parts to leading roles in major series at various studios, including Nickelodeon, Warner Bros., Hanna-Barbera, Dreamworks, and 20th Century Fox studios. His most memorable roles, however, have been at Walt Disney Studios. There, he provided voices for a variety of television series, including leading roles in 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, Goof Troop, Bonkers, Gargoyles, and House of Mouse, and movies such as Hercules, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Pocahontas and the Disney special edition of Alice in Wonderland (as the Cheshire Cat singing "I'm Odd"). Cummings also voiced the non-speaking role of Ed the laughing hyena in 1994's The Lion King.

Other notable roles include "Mr. Bumpy" in the cult Claymation show Bump in the Night, Dr. Robotnik on Sonic The Hedgehog, Psy-Crow and Bob the Killer Goldfish on Earthworm Jim and Taz Tazmanian Devil on Taz-Mania and a number of other projects. In addition to Taz and Pooh, Cummings has over the years become the official voice for a number of legendary cartoon characters, including Tigger, Pete, Dick Dastardly, the Slag Brothers, Big Gruesome, Private Meekly, Clyde, and Morocco Mole . He also did some voices on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles such as Leatherhead the mutant alligator and some additional characters. He also did the voice of Don Karnage in Disney's TaleSpin. Cummings has also provided voices for video games, television commercials, and movie trailers, and is the current official announcer for Kids' WB!, as well as the official spokesperson for the current Cheez-It commercials. Recently, he returned to his role as Taz on Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas.

In the world of video games, Cummings has done the voice of Minsc (probably his most popular role) 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 also 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 Clay Fighter 63 1/3. He also voices "Sarge" and the other soldiers in the Army Men games. In Ys Book I and II for the Turbografx -16 CD system, he is credited as voicing "Dalles", and he provided voices for minor characters in Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers. He played several characters in the little-known gem "Toonstruck."

In addition, Cummings narrates the current Epcot fireworks show, IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth.

Cummings has a notable cameo in Comic Book: The Movie as an inebriated party-goer. This is his only live-action appearance. The movie stars many other voice actors, including Tom Kenny, Billy West and Mark Hamill.

[edit] Voice Work

[edit] Workplace

  • DPN - Danis, Panaro & Nist

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ State of California. Lists James J. Cummings on 3 November 1952. No James J. Cummings born in 1953.

[edit] External links