Jim Cummings's Real Name: Jim Cummings

Quick answer: He works as Jim Cummings, the official voice of Disney's Winnie the Pooh and Tigger. The Contemporary Theatre, Film and Television profile on Encyclopedia.com gives his full name as James Jonah Cummings and his birth as November 3, 1952, in Youngstown, Ohio. A Library of Congress record gives the same date and place. The full name rests on one qualifying source.

Real name and early life

The Los Angeles Times calls him a Youngstown, Ohio, native who grew up watching Saturday morning cartoons and decided early that he wanted to do voices. He told NPR he was the kid in the back of the class making dolphin noises. He remembered a nun at St. Columba telling him, "We don't have dolphins here."

NPR says that after high school he moved to New Orleans, where he worked as a riverboat deckhand and a Mardi Gras float builder. He then managed a video rental store in Anaheim, California; Encyclopedia.com dates that job to 1979 through 1984. AWN says he made his first demo tape at the store, and NPR says it reached animator Don Bluth, who passed it to a Disney producer.

Career highlights

His first Disney role was Lionel the Lion on Dumbo's Circus (1985), AWN says. He told AWN he quickly realized he was earning more in eight hours than in six days at the video store. NPR says animated TV was enjoying a heyday then, and he was soon voicing characters on shows such as Adventures of the Gummi Bears.

When Disney revived the Pooh characters in 1988 for The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, NPR says, original voice Sterling Holloway was in his 80s and retired. Cummings took over. AWN says he has been the official voice of Pooh since 1988, Tigger since 1989, the Looney Tunes Tasmanian Devil since 1991, and Mickey Mouse's rival Pete since 1992.

The LA Times says he has voiced some 400 roles, including Darkwing Duck and the singing voice of Scar in The Lion King. He also voiced Kaa in The Jungle Book 2. AWN adds Cat on CatDog, Ray in The Princess and the Frog, and Hondo Ohnaka in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Rebels. He voiced Pooh and Tigger in the live-action Christopher Robin (2018). AWN calls him a two-time Annie Award winner, with further Annie and Emmy nominations.

Name notes for searchers

Jim is the short form of James, the first name given by Encyclopedia.com. In 2025 AWN noted his podcast, Toon'd In, and his work on the animated King of Kings. Encyclopedia.com and the Library of Congress both give his birth as November 3, 1952, in Youngstown, Ohio.