Jim Cummings

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For other people with similar names, see James Cummings.

Jim Cummings
Jim Cummings in 2018.jpg
Cummings in 2018
Born
James Jonah Cummings

(1952-11-03) November 3, 1952 (age 68)
Youngstown, Ohio, U.S.
OccupationVoice actor
Years active1984–present
Spouse(s)
Stephanie Cummings
​
​
(m. 2001; div. 2011)​
Children4

James Jonah Cummings (born November 3, 1952)[1][2] is an American voice actor who has appeared in almost 400 roles, including Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, the Tasmanian Devil, Pete and King Louie.

Early life[]

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.[3] He attended Immaculate Conception and St. Columba grade schools as well as Ursuline High School and graduated from there in 1970.[4]

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.[5]

Career[]

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

Cummings's first voice role was as Lionel the Lion and Aunt Fira in Dumbo's Circus.[5][6] Some of Cummings' earliest vocal work was at Disney, where he replaced Hal Smith as the voice of Winnie the Pooh in 1988. He was the understudy for Paul Winchell as Tigger, before fully replacing him as the character in 2000's The Tigger Movie. In 1991, he was hired by Warner Bros. Animation to voice the Tasmanian Devil on the animated series Taz-Mania and would continue to voice the character in various Looney Tunes media.

When actor Jeremy Irons, the voice of Scar in The Lion King, developed vocal problems during recording of the song "Be Prepared", Cummings replaced him on the remainder of the track along with providing the voice for Ed the hyena.[7] He also provided Scar's voice in a brief nightmare sequence in The Lion King II: Simba's Pride. Cummings would later be hired as the singing double for Russell Means in Pocahontas, the speaking voice of Kekata in Pocahontas and the singing voice of Grigori Rasputin in Anastasia.

In commercials, he voiced Smokey the Bear in several commercials, ads and promos from 1993 to 2006.[8] Also in 2006 through 2008 he was the announcer for the short-lived court show Judge Maria Lopez which was produced and distributed by Sony Pictures Television.

In 2018, he became the first voice performer of animation to reprise his role(s) for a live-action Disney film, reprising the roles of Winnie the Pooh and Tigger for the film Christopher Robin.[9][10] His performance as Pooh was particularly praised by Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair, who felt it was "Oscar-worthy" and said that "[a]s Winnie the Pooh … the veteran voice actor gives such sweet, rumpled, affable life to the wistful bear of literary renown that it routinely breaks the heart."[11]

Personal life[]

Cummings has two daughters with Stephanie Cummings, as well as two older children from a previous marriage.[12] Cummings and Stephanie divorced in 2011, after ten years of marriage.[13]

Controversy[]

In 2019, during a child custody and care payment battle, Stephanie Cummings stated that during their marriage, her former spouse had "engaged in physical, sexual and emotional abuse including but not limited to death threats, rape, and various sexual deviant behavior forced upon me without my consent". She also said that Cummings had raped her in 2013 and mistreated the family dog.[14] She claimed that as a result, she had moved to Utah and filed a restraining order against him three times.

Cummings in turn denied all of these statements, and accused his ex-wife of extortion.[15] He said that Stephanie was an abuser of drugs, had purposefully exaggerated her stories to ruin his reputation, and had threatened multiple times to end his career. He stated Stephanie had also missed months of assigned and required visitations with the daughters. He also said that the authorities themselves had stopped responding to her calls of abuse after she kept calling them multiple times, with them citing it as "a waste of police resources." Authorities, including child protection services in three states, investigated the couple's claims.[16]

Cummings won the case for primary physical custody over the girls, but both parents continue to share joint legal custody.[17] Both were admonished by the judge for "bad parenting" by not having put their children ahead of their personal feud, and that there was varying amounts of abuse from both parties. They were then awarded mutual restraining orders in which they had to stay 100 yards away from each other, excluding visitation purposes. The orders will remain in effect until May 9, 2022.[18] In June 2019, Cummings stated in an open letter to fans that he and his legal team had contacted the FBI in helping to dispel the allegations.[19]

Filmography[]

Main article: Jim Cummings filmography

Accolades[]

Year Award Category Subject Result Ref.
1992 Annie Awards Best Voice Acting for Television Darkwing Duck Won [20][21]
1993 Goof Troop
  • For the voice of Pete
 Won [22]
1995 Bump in the Night Nominated
2003 Best Voice Acting in a Feature Production The Jungle Book 2 Nominated
2011 Gnomeo & Juliet Nominated
2011 Behind The Voice Actors Awards Best Male Vocal Performance in a Feature Film Winnie the Pooh Won [23]
2012 Annie Awards Best Voice Acting in a Feature Production Zambezia Nominated
2009 Daytime Emmy Awards Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program My Friends Tigger & Pooh Nominated
2013 Star Wars: The Clone Wars Nominated
2014 Behind The Voice Actors Awards Best Male Vocal Performance in a Television Series – Children's/Educational Transformers: Rescue Bots Won [24]

References[]

  1. ^ "Cummings, Jim". Library of Congress. Retrieved March 17, 2021.
  2. ^ "Jim Cummings". behindthevoiceactors.com. Retrieved January 4, 2017.
  3. ^ "Episode 17 with Guest: Jim Cummings". Rob Paulsen Live. October 14, 2011. Archived from the original on April 19, 2012. Retrieved February 25, 2012.
  4. ^ "Heard but not seen: Catholic voice actor leads an animated life -". The Catholic Review. July 24, 2009.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b Davis, Sandi (February 11, 2005). "The voice of Pooh and Tigger too Disney keeps Jim Cummings busy with voice work". The Oklahoman. Retrieved April 5, 2020.
  6. ^ "Becoming a character: An interview with Jim Cummings". WCYB. Retrieved April 5, 2020.
  7. ^ "Has Disney Been 'Lion' About Jeremy Irons' Singing Voice?". Huffington Post. September 19, 2011.
  8. ^ Knowling, Doug (2016). Ecological Restoration: Wildfire Ecology Reference Manual. Knowling. ISBN 9780786486946.
  9. ^ Mescobar, Aaron (May 27, 2018). "Chris O'Dowd Replaced As Tigger In 'Christopher Robin' By Original Voice Actor Jim Cummings". We are Geeks of Color. Retrieved June 19, 2018.
  10. ^ Schaefer, Sandy (August 14, 2017). "Christopher Robin: Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore & More Possibly Cast". Screen Rant. Retrieved September 17, 2017.
  11. ^ Lawson, Richard (August 2, 2018). "There's an Oscar-Worthy Performance in Disney's Christopher Robin". Vanity Fair. New York City: Condé Nast. Retrieved August 21, 2018.
  12. ^ Lindell, Karen (August 23, 2009). "At work, Jim Cummings is quite the characters". VC Star.
  13. ^ Barcella, Laura (May 3, 2019). "'Winnie the Pooh' Voice Actor and Ex Wife Accuse Each Other of Abuse". People. Retrieved July 29, 2019.
  14. ^ "'Winnie the Pooh' voice actor denies rape accusations, claims ex-wife extorting him". New York Post. June 1, 2019. Retrieved December 20, 2020.
  15. ^ Desk, Cox Media Group National Content. "Ex-wife of 'Winnie the Pooh' voice actor Jim Cummings accuses him of sexual abuse, animal cruelty". WFXT. Retrieved December 20, 2020.
  16. ^ "'Winnie the Pooh' Actor Jim Cummings, Ex-Wife Investigated by CPS". The Blast. May 10, 2019. Retrieved December 20, 2020.
  17. ^ ""Winnie the Pooh" voice star Jim Cummings claims victory in bitter divorce battle". Inside the Magic. May 12, 2019. Retrieved December 20, 2020.
  18. ^ "'Winnie the Pooh' Actor Jim Cummings and Ex-Wife Admonished by Judge As They Get Dueling Restraining Orders". The Blast. May 12, 2019. Retrieved December 20, 2020.
  19. ^ Dellatto, Marisa (June 1, 2019). "'Winnie the Pooh' voice actor denies ex's rape accusations in open letter". Page Six. Retrieved December 20, 2020.
  20. ^ "20th Annual Annie Awards". annieawards.org. Retrieved October 21, 2020.
  21. ^ "Annie Awards (1992)". IMDb. Retrieved October 21, 2020.
  22. ^ "Annie Awards (1993)". IMDb. Retrieved October 21, 2020.
  23. ^ "2011 BTVA Voice Acting Awards". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved October 22, 2020.
  24. ^ "2014 BTVA Voice Acting Awards". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved October 22, 2020.

External links[]

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