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James Jonah "Jim" Cummings (born November 3, 1952) is an American voice actor and singer, who has appeared in almost 400 roles. He is known for voicing Darkwing Duck, Dr. Eggman from Sonic the Hedgehog, and Pete, as well as being the current voice of both Winnie the Pooh and Tigger, and the Tasmanian Devil. He has performed in numerous animated Disney and DreamWorks movies including Aladdin, Lion King, Balto, Antz, The Road to El Dorado, Shrek, and The Princess and the Frog. He has also provided voice-over work for video games, such as Icewind Dale, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Baldur's Gate, Mass Effect 2, Star Wars: The Old Republic, World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, and Splatterhouse.
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".[1]
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 and his wife Stephanie have two daughters as well as two older children from a previous marriage.
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 reprise the voice in 2006 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, Gargoyles, Timon & Pumbaa, The Legend of Tarzan and House of Mouse, and animated films such as Hercules, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, 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 sequel The Return of Jafar.
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.[2]
Cummings was the only original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles voice actor to return for the 2007 film, having previously appeared in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (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 has 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 Channel 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 younger looking characters like Witterquick from Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light and Glatorian 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.
Tiny Toon Adventures, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Looney Tunes, Steven Spielberg
David Benedictus, Theodore Roosevelt, When We Were Very Young, Winnie-the-Pooh (book), The Walt Disney Company
Adventure Time, Cartoon Network, Cartoon Network Studios, The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, Camp Lazlo
DuckTales, Jim Cummings, Charlie Adler, Superman, Frank Welker
Jim Cummings, Merlin, Frank Welker, Animaniacs, Silver Surfer