The Top 20 Voice Actors: Sterling Holloway

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This is an entry to Mark Evanier's list of the twenty top voice actors in American animated cartoons between 1928 and 1968. For more on this list, read this. To see all the listings posted to date, click here.

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Sterling Holloway

Most Famous Role: Winnie the Pooh

Other Notable Roles: Mr. Stork in Dumbo, The Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland, Kaa in The Jungle Book and countless commercials, plus he was the original voice of Woodsy Owl.

What He Did Besides Cartoon Voices: He was a great character actor appearing on-camera in hundreds of movies and TV shows. You can catch him in several episodes of the Superman TV series George Reeves, playing — as he did in many appearances — an eccentric scientist and on The Life of Riley.

Why He's On This List: He was a Walt Disney favorite for his ability to infuse a character with personality without ever sounding like someone "doing a voice." He really wasn't doing a voice. He just had the one and it had depth and texture and humanity and the moment you heard it come out of some character, you paid attention.

Fun Fact: Mr. Holloway had a brief career performing on Broadway where he introduced at least two songs by the team of Rodgers and Hart that quickly became standards: "Manhattan" and "Mountain Greenery."