Background and career
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.
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 attending Georgia Military Academy, he left Georgia in 1920 at the age of fifteen and went to 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.
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 performed with the Theatre Guild production of Fata Morgana 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 fifty 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. His final film role was Hobe Carpenter, a friendly moonshiner who helps Harley Thomas (David Carradine) in Thunder and Lightning (1977).
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); Amos Mouse from Ben and Me (1953); 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. A majority of his roles were inherited by voice actor Jim Cummings following his death.
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).
