Jimmy MacDonald (sound effects artist)

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John James "Jimmy" MacDonald (May 19, 1906 - February 1, 1991), Glendale, California, USA) was a Scottish voice actor and the original head of the Disney sound effects department, and the voice of Mickey Mouse from 1947 to 1977. In addition to directing sounds for films as aurally complicated as Mickey's Trailer (1938), he developed many original inventions to achieve expressive sounds for characters like the train Casey Jr. from Dumbo (1941), Evinrude from The Rescuers (1977), the bees in Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree and Buzz-buzz, the bee that gets the best of Donald Duck in his 1950s short films. He also added voice effects, like on-screen humming for Kirk Douglas in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), and chipmunk chatter from various Chip & Dale cartoons, starting with 1943's Private Pluto.

In 1947, Walt Disney was getting too busy and too hoarse from smoking to continue voicing Mickey Mouse, so he passed the torch to MacDonald, starting with the film Fun and Fancy Free. MacDonald voiced the mouse on a regular basis until 1953 and a recurring one until 1977, passing the torch to young Disney sound effects man Wayne Allwine for Mickey's Christmas Carol.

MacDonald died of heart failure in 1991.