Upon his graduation from high school, 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.[5] 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.[6]
Cummings's first voice role was as Lionel the Lion and Aunt Fira in Dumbo's Circus.[6][7] Some of Cummings' earliest vocal work was at Disney, where he replaced Sterling Holloway as the voice of Winnie the Pooh in 1988. His impression proved to be so spot-on that he also filled in for Holloway as Kaa for both Jungle Cubs and The Jungle Book 2, and as the Cheshire Cat for various Disney video games. He also notably impersonated J. Pat O'Malley in the roles of Colonel Hathi for both aforementioned productions and the Colonel in 101 Dalmatians: The Series, Louis Prima as King Louie in Jungle Cubs and TaleSpin, and Wayne Knight as Tantor the Elephant in The Legend of Tarzan. Starting with Goof Troop, Cummings also became the regular voice of Pete.
Besides being a voice double and sound-alike, Cummings has also voiced original characters.
In Rescue Rangers and TaleSpin, he portrayed a wide variety of other characters. His most famous role in Rescue Rangers was the villainous Fat Cat, and for TaleSpin, he notably starred as the show's main antagonist, Don Karnage. After both shows concluded production, Cummings went on to portray the title characters in Darkwing Duck and Bonkers, each of which he also got to voice other characters. He would later co-star with Tom Kenny in CatDog, with Cummings playing Cat and Kenny voicing Dog. Also, despite having starred in animated feature films under "additional voices", Cummings achieved a motion picture breakthrough by starring in Disney's Aladdin, where he voiced both Razoul the Agrabah Guard Captain and Farouk the Merchant. He later went on to voice original characters for a variety of the company's theatrical and direct-to-video films, such as Ed the Hyena in The Lion King and Ray the Firefly in The Princess and the Frog. In 1998, Cummings also starred as Ocula the Gorgonite in Small Soldiers, which was a live-action film directed by Joe Dante.
Aside from Fat Cat and Don Karnage, Cummings's involvements as Pete and the Tasmanian Devil were elements that typecast him in antagonistic roles. An example comes from when he voiced Steele the Alaskan Malamute in Universal's Balto. According to an interview with director Simon Wells, the role was originally offered to Brendan Fraser, but executive producer Steven Spielberg recommended recasting the role with Cummings because he wanted to feel a clearer sense of Steele's "inherent evil". Wells stated that Cummings "did a fantastic job, and totally made the character live, so I don't regret the choice.".[10] Other villain roles Cummings notably took on include Sierra the Cearadactylus in The Land Before Time VII: The Stone of Cold Fire, and Doctor Robotnik in the Sonic the Hedgehog animated series that aired from 1993 to 1994. He also voiced several characters in the 1997 video game Fallout, but his most notable role was the game's main antagonist, The Master.
In addition, he voiced various characters for the Scooby-Doo, Tom and Jerry and Star Wars franchises. His most famous role in Star Wars is Hondo Ohnaka the Weequay Pirate. According to Cummings, Ohnaka was initially only going to appear in a two or three episode story arc of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, but the character was so well-received that he became much more recurring throughout the franchise. Following the departure of Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg, Cummings was hired to portray characters in several productions by Dreamworks, most notably voicing the Captain of Lord Farquaad's Guards in Shrek, Hernán Cortés in The Road to El Dorado along with additional characters, and Luca in Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas. In 2006, Cummings voiced a variety of characters for the Curious George animated TV show, notably voicing that of Pisghetti the Italian Chef, the male members of the Quint family, and Jumpy Squirrel, the latter which he provided merely animal sounds. The series became one of the longest-running American children's programs around, having initially run for nine seasons on PBS Kids before being renewed following the launch of Peacock, the streaming service of NBCUniversal.
Recent works
In 2018, Cummings became the first voice performer of animation to reprise a role or more for a live-action Disney film, reprising the roles of Winnie the Pooh and Tigger for Christopher Robin. For the film, the role of Tigger was originally going to be played by Chris O'Dowd, but due to negative reactions from test audiences, Disney immediately replaced O'Dowd with Cummings.[11][12] 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."[13]
Nearly three years later, Cummings reprised the role of Taz by providing uncredited vocal effects for the character in some scenes of Space Jam: A New Legacy.[14] His recordings in question were mixed with material by Fred Tatasciore, who was the character's credited voice actor for the film and previously played the part for Looney Tunes Cartoons. Cummings would later go on to reprise the roles of Fat Cat, Darkwing Duck, and Pete for the
Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers film, along with the right arm of Shredder from the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series, and bootleg versions of Pooh and Tigger. Meanwhile, the role of Monterey Jack was played by Australian actor and comedian Eric Bana. Over a year after the film's release, Cummings reprised the role of King Triton for Lego Disney Princess: The Castle Quest, making his first appearance as the character since Ariel's Beginning. Months later, Cummings reprised the role of Winnie the Pooh for Disney's Once Upon a Studio to sing a portion of When You Wish Upon a Star, the short in question also featured him as the voice of Baloo from The Jungle Book for a similar purpose. Cummings was also involved in Disney Speedstorm. For the game, he voiced Steamboat Pete for the "To Infinity and Beyond" season, and he later made his third appearance as King Triton for the "Under the Sea" season.
Beginning on June 12, 2023, Cummings began hosting a podcast called Toon'd In!with Jim Cummings, which is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Spreaker. In the series, Cummings talks about the wide array of characters he voiced over the years, and various other voice artists guest star in episodes for interviews.[15]
Personal life
Cummings has two daughters with his former wife Stephanie Jardon. The two were married from 2001 to 2011, when they divorced. In 2019, they became involved in an acrimonious custody dispute, which Cummings won.[16][17] Cummings also has two older daughters from a previous marriage.[18]
In a separate interview with Collider, Cummings stated that his favorite characters to play are Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Ray the Firefly, Drake Mallard/Darkwing Duck, and Hondo Ohnaka.[20]
