Jim Cummings facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Jim Cummings
Cummings in 2025
Born	James Jonah Cummings (1952-11-03) November 3, 1952 (age 72) Youngstown, Ohio, U.S.
Occupation	Voice actor podcaster
Years active	1984–present
Works	Full list
Spouse(s)	Stephanie Jardon ​ ​ (m. 2001; div. 2011)​
Children	4
YouTube information
Years active	2023–present
Genre	Voice acting
Subscribers	106 thousand
Total views	38.2 million

James Jonah Cummings (born November 3, 1952), known as Jim Cummings, is a famous American voice actor. He started his career in the 1980s and has voiced characters in over 400 movies and TV shows.

Cummings has worked a lot with the Walt Disney Company and Warner Bros.. He has been the official voice of Winnie the Pooh since 1988 and Tigger since 1989. He also voices the Tasmanian Devil and Pete. Some of his other well-known roles include Fat Cat and Monterey Jack from Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers. He was also the voice of the main character in Darkwing Duck. You might also know him as Dr. Julian Robotnik from Sonic the Hedgehog. He voiced Kaa in Jungle Cubs and The Jungle Book 2. He was Cat in CatDog and Ray in The Princess and the Frog.

Early Life of Jim Cummings

James Jonah Cummings was born in Youngstown, Ohio, on November 3, 1952. He went to school in Youngstown, graduating from Ursuline High School in 1970.

After high school, Cummings moved to New Orleans. There, he designed and painted Mardi Gras floats. He also worked on a river boat and played drums in a rock band called Fusion. Later, he moved to Anaheim, California, and managed a video store. He began his voice acting career in late 1984.

Jim Cummings' Voice Acting Career

Jim Cummings (middle), with Loren Lester (right), and Alan Oppenheimer (left) in 2015

Starting Out and Famous Voices

Jim Cummings' first voice roles were Lionel the Lion and Aunt Fira in Dumbo's Circus. Early in his career, he started working for Disney. He took over as the voice of Winnie the Pooh in 1988. He was so good at sounding like the original actor, Sterling Holloway, that he also voiced Kaa in Jungle Cubs and The Jungle Book 2. He also voiced the Cheshire Cat in various Disney video games.

Cummings also voiced other characters who sounded like their original actors. He voiced Colonel Hathi in Jungle Cubs and 101 Dalmatians: The Series. He was King Louie in Jungle Cubs and TaleSpin. He also became the regular voice of Pete starting with Goof Troop.

He began sharing the role of Tigger with Paul Winchell in The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. Cummings fully took over the role in The Tigger Movie. He also voiced Zummi Gummi in Adventures of the Gummi Bears and Dick Dastardly in some Wacky Races shows. For Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers, he sometimes voiced Monterey Jack. In The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning, Cummings voiced King Triton. In 1991, Warner Bros. hired him to voice Taz in Taz-Mania. He has continued to voice Taz in many Looney Tunes projects.

When Jeremy Irons, the voice of Scar in The Lion King, had trouble singing "Be Prepared", Cummings helped finish the song. He also voiced Scar in a dream scene in The Lion King II: Simba's Pride. Cummings also sang for Chief Powhatan in Pocahontas. He also sang for Grigori Rasputin in Anastasia. From 1993 to 2008, he was the voice of Smokey Bear for many commercials.

Creating New Characters

Besides sounding like other characters, Jim Cummings has also created many original voices.

In Rescue Rangers and TaleSpin, he voiced many different characters. His most famous role in Rescue Rangers was the bad guy Fat Cat. In TaleSpin, he was the main villain, Don Karnage. After these shows, Cummings voiced the main characters in Darkwing Duck and Bonkers. He also voiced other characters in those shows. Later, he co-starred with Tom Kenny in CatDog, where Cummings was Cat.

Cummings also voiced original characters in Disney movies. In Aladdin, he voiced Razoul the Guard Captain and Farouk the Merchant. He also voiced Ed the Hyena in The Lion King and Ray the Firefly in The Princess and the Frog. In 1998, Cummings was Ocula the Gorgonite in the movie Small Soldiers.

Cummings often voiced bad guys. He was Steele the Alaskan Malamute in Balto. He also voiced Sierra the Cearadactylus in The Land Before Time VII: The Stone of Cold Fire. He was Doctor Robotnik in the Sonic the Hedgehog TV series from 1993 to 1994. He also voiced The Master, the main bad guy, in the 1997 video game Fallout.

He has also voiced many characters in the Scooby-Doo, Tom and Jerry, and Star Wars shows. His most famous Star Wars role is Hondo Ohnaka, the Weequay Pirate. Hondo was so popular that he appeared in many more Star Wars stories. Cummings also voiced characters for Dreamworks, like the Captain of Lord Farquaad's Guards in Shrek. He was Hernán Cortés in The Road to El Dorado and Luca in Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas. In 2006, Cummings voiced several characters in the Curious George TV show. These included Pisghetti the Italian Chef and Jumpy Squirrel.

Recent Voice Work

In 2018, Jim Cummings voiced Winnie the Pooh and Tigger again for the live-action Disney movie Christopher Robin. This was special because he was the first voice actor to play animated characters in a live-action Disney film. People really loved his performance as Pooh in the movie.

In 2021, Cummings voiced Taz again in Space Jam: A New Legacy. He also returned as Fat Cat, Darkwing Duck, and Pete for the Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers movie. He also voiced the right arm of Shredder from the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles show. In 2023, Cummings voiced King Triton again for Lego Disney Princess: The Castle Quest. Later that year, he voiced Winnie the Pooh and Baloo from The Jungle Book in Disney's short film Once Upon a Studio. He also voiced Steamboat Pete and King Triton in the game Disney Speedstorm.

Since June 12, 2023, Cummings has hosted a podcast called Toon'd In! with Jim Cummings. On the podcast, he talks about his many characters. Other voice actors also join him for interviews. In 2025, he voiced Fat Cat, Darkwing Duck, and Bonkers Bobcat again in the Chibiverse episode "Journey at the Center of the Chibiverse". In March 2025, it was announced that Cummings would voice Pharisee Hillel, Dismas, and James the Greater in The King of Kings, an animated Christian film.

Jim Cummings' Personal Life

Jim Cummings has two daughters with his former wife, Stephanie Jardon. They were married from 2001 to 2011. He also has two older daughters from an earlier marriage.

Cummings has said that his favorite voice actors are Mel Blanc, Paul Winchell, Paul Frees, June Foray, and Frank Welker. He called Mel Blanc the "Frank Sinatra of voice acting." He also said Frank Welker was "The Beatles of voiceover."

In another interview, Cummings shared his favorite characters to play. These include Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Ray the Firefly, Darkwing Duck, and Hondo Ohnaka. He is Catholic and attends St. Jude Parish in Los Angeles.

Filmography

Awards and Recognition

See also

In Spanish: Jim Cummings para niños