Sterling Holloway

Sterling Price Holloway Jr. (January 14, 1905 – November 22, 1992) was an American actor who appeared in over 100 films and 40 television shows. He did voice acting for The Walt Disney Company, playing Mr. Stork in Dumbo, Adult Flower in Bambi, the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland, Kaa in The Jungle Book, Roquefort the Mouse in The Aristocats, and the title character in Winnie the Pooh, among many others.

Early life

Born in Cedartown, Georgia, on January 14, 1905, Holloway was named after his father, Sterling Price Holloway, who, in turn, was named after a prominent Confederate general, Sterling "Pap" Price. His mother was Rebecca DeHaven Boothby. He had a younger brother named Boothby. The family owned a grocery store in Cedartown, where his father served as mayor in 1912. After graduating from Georgia Military Academy in 1920 at the age of fifteen, he left Georgia for New York City, where he attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. While there, he befriended actor Spencer Tracy, whom he considered one of his favorite working colleagues.

Career

Films and shorts

In his late teens, Holloway toured with the stock company of The Shepherd of the Hills, performing in one-nighters across much of the American West before returning to New York where he accepted small walk-on parts from the Theatre Guild and appeared in the Rodgers and Hart revue The Garrick Gaieties in the mid-1920s. A talented singer, he introduced "Manhattan" in 1925 and the following year sang "Mountain Greenery".

He moved to Hollywood in 1926 to begin a film career that lasted almost 50 years. His bushy red hair and foggy distinctive voice meant that he almost always appeared in comedies. His first film was The Battling Kangaroo (1926), a silent picture. Over the following decades, Holloway would appear with Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Lon Chaney Jr., Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, Bing Crosby, and John Carradine. In 1942, during World War II, Holloway enlisted in the United States Army at the age of 37 and was assigned to the Special Services. He helped develop a show called "Hey Rookie", which ran for nine months and raised $350,000 for the Army Relief Fund. In 1945, Holloway played the role of a medic assigned to an infantry platoon in the critically acclaimed film A Walk in the Sun. Between 1946 and 1947, he played the comic sidekick in five Gene Autry Westerns.

With Walt Disney

Walt Disney originally considered Holloway for the voice of Sleepy in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), but chose Pinto Colvig instead. Holloway's voice work in animated films began with Dumbo (1941), as the voice of Mr. Stork. Holloway was the voice of the adult Flower in Bambi (1942), the narrator of the Antarctic penguin sequence in The Three Caballeros (1944) and the narrator in the Peter and the Wolf sequence of Make Mine Music (1946). He was the voice of the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland (1951); the narrator in The Little House (1952), Susie the Little Blue Coupe (1952), Lambert the Sheepish Lion (1952), and Goliath II (1960); Kaa the snake in The Jungle Book (1967); and Roquefort the mouse in The Aristocats (1970). He is perhaps best remembered as the voice of Winnie the Pooh in Disney's Winnie the Pooh featurettes through 1977. He was honored as a Disney Legend in 1991, the first person to receive the award in the voice category. His final role was Hobe Carpenter, a friendly moonshiner who helps Harley Thomas (David Carradine) in Thunder and Lightning (1977). A majority of his roles were inherited by voice actor Jim Cummings following his death.

Radio and recordings

Holloway acted on many radio programs, including The Railroad Hour, The United States Steel Hour, Suspense, Lux Radio Theater, and The Shadow. In the late 1940s, he could be heard in various roles on NBC's "Fibber McGee and Molly". His voice retained a touch of its Southern drawl and was instantly recognizable. Holloway was chosen to narrate many children's records, including Uncle Remus Stories (Decca), Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes (Disneyland Records), Walt Disney Presents Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories (Disneyland Records) and Peter And The Wolf (RCA Victor).

Television

Holloway easily made the transition from radio to television. He appeared on the Adventures of Superman as "Uncle Oscar", an eccentric inventor, and played a recurring role on The Life of Riley. He guest-starred on Fred Waring's CBS television program in the 1950s and appeared on Circus Boy as a hot air balloonist. Some other series on which he performed include Five Fingers (episode "The Temple of the Swinging Doll"), The Untouchables, The Real McCoys ("The Jinx"), Hazel, Pete and Gladys, The Twilight Zone ("What's in the Box"), The Brothers Brannagan, Gilligan's Island, The Andy Griffith Show, The Donald O'Connor Show, Peter Gunn, F Troop, and Moonlighting. During the 1970s, Holloway did commercial voice-overs for Purina Puppy Chow dog food and sang their familiar jingle, "Puppy Chow/For a full year/Till he's full-grown!" He also provided the voice for Woodsy Owl in several 1970s and 1980s United States Forest Service commercials. He auditioned for the well-known comic book character Garfield in 1982, but lost to Lorenzo Music. He provided voice-over work for the 1984 commercial of Libby's baked beans.

Personal life and death

Holloway was a Democrat but supported the candidacy of Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 1952 presidential election. In 1956, he supported Democrat Adlai Stevenson. Holloway adhered to Methodism. Throughout his life, Holloway remained a bachelor. He once said this was because he felt lacking in nothing and did not wish to disturb his pattern of life. He adopted a son, Richard Holloway.

Fellow Winnie the Pooh cast member Hal Smith (who originated the character Owl) had taken over the role of Winnie the Pooh for the 1981 short Winnie the Pooh Discovers the Seasons. Holloway was given the chance to return to the role for The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh but, at 83 years old, could no longer perform the voice as he had in the past; Jim Cummings took over the role as well as most of Holloway's other voice roles, including Kaa in Jungle Cubs and The Jungle Book 2. Holloway died of a cardiac arrest at the Good Samaritan Hospital on November 22, 1992.

Filmography

Feature films

Short subjects

Television

Discography

• ”Cold Blooded Penguin” (1944) as Narrator
• ”The Three Caballeros” (1944) as Narrator
• Uncle Remus Stories (Decca, 1947) as Narrator
• Peter and the Wolf (RCA Victor, 1949) as Narrator
• Alice in Wonderland (RCA Victor, 1951) as the Cheshire Cat
• Susie, the Little Blue Coupe (Decca, 1952) as Narrator
• The Little House (Decca, 1952) as Narrator
• The Sorcerer's Apprentice/Peter and the Wolf (Disneyland, 1958) as Narrator
• The Country Cousin (Disneyland, 1959) as Narrator
• Goliath II (Disneyland, 1960) as Narrator
• The Grasshopper and the Ants (Disneyland, 1960) as Narrator (also writer)
• The Stories and Songs of Walt Disney's Three Little Pigs (Disneyland, 1961) as Narrator
• The Absent Minded Professor (Disneyland, 1961) as Narrator
• The Best Stories of Aesop (Disneyland, 1961) as Narrator
• Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes (Disneyland, 1963) as Narrator
• Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories (Disneyland, 1964) as Narrator
• Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (Disneyland, 1965) as Winnie the Pooh
• A Happy Birthday Party with Winnie the Pooh (Disneyland, 1966) as Winnie the Pooh
• Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (Disneyland, 1967) as Winnie the Pooh/Narrator
• Winnie the Pooh and the North Pole Expotition (Disneyland, 1968) as Winnie the Pooh/Narrator
• Winnie the Pooh and Tigger (Disneyland, 1968) as Winnie the Pooh/Narrator
• Winnie the Pooh and the Heffalumps (Disneyland, 1968) as Winnie the Pooh/Narrator
• The Aristocats (Disneyland, 1970) as Roquefort
• Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too (Disneyland, 1974) as Winnie the Pooh
• Winnie the Pooh for President (Disneyland, 1976) as Winnie the Pooh

Sources

• Rothel, David. 1984. Those Great Cowboy Sidekicks. Scarecrow Press, Metuchen, New Jersey; ISBN 0-8108-1707-1