Jim Cummings is a legend. His voice has been featured in countless animated works, particularly in Disney’s animated productions.
You’d probably recognize him best as Winnie the Pooh and his friend Tigger. Cummings took over for their original voice actors back in the 1980s. But Pooh and Tigger are not the limit of his Disney characters. You’ve also seen him as guard captain Razoul from the Aladdin movies and its spin-offs, Pete from various Disney media (including Goof Troop and A Goofy Movie and its sequels) and Nessus the Centaur from Hercules.
In The Lion King, you didn’t hear him speak, but you heard him laugh a LOT. He played Ed, the third of the hyena trio, for whom he recorded over four hours of laughing. He also provided the singing voice for Scar when Scar's voice actor Jeremy Irons developed vocal problems during the movie's production. He did the same thing for chief Powhatan on Pocahontas.
Cummings reprised his roles as Pooh, Tigger, Pete and Ed in the hit video game series Kingdom Hearts.
Jim Cummings as Pooh Bear and Tigger from Kingdom Hearts II, with Haley Joel Osment as Sora:
Recently, Jim Cummings has done some work with Blizzard Entertainment, narrating several sequences for World of Warcraft’s newest expansion, Mists of Pandaria, and voicing some of the Pandarens, including Lorewalker Cho, and Shen-zin Su.
Jim Cummings has demonstrated a wide range of voices over the span of his career. His characters have ranged from important to unimportant, from innocent to villainous and from woefully likeable to delightfully unlikeable. It’s hard to tell exactly what kinds of characters he is suitable to playing, since he’s played them all. For me, hearing his voice as the Patriarch on Mass Effect 2 was so unexpected and yet the role also fit him perfectly. He seemed to play the character well enough, like he’d been part of the Mass Effect universe for years.
Cummings has proven his vocal versatility with his long career. Given all of his previously-stated roles, I wouldn't be surprised if I heard his voice as Pete, Pooh and Tigger until he retired. It's hard to tell what kind of voices I could see him doing in the future besides those ones, but whatever they are, it's safe to say he will do them well.
I'll post another actor on Friday. After this, I'll start posting them on a weekly basis. Catch you later!
