Kamari Lion King: Meet The Actors Who Voiced Him

The Lion King is a musical fantasy film that was originally a cartoon and part of many childhood nostalgias. With the remakings of “Beauty and the Beast”, “Cinderella”, and other Walt Disney fantasy films from way back, it was just a matter of time before “The Lion King” suffer the same fate. First made in 1994 as an animated cartoon, “The Lion King” returned in 2019 as a hyperrealistic live-action-like animals with new voices, including the voices of Donald Glover, Seth Rogen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Alfre Woodard, Billy Eichner, John Kani, John Oliver, and Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, as well as James Earl Jones reprising various roles from the original film. Keegan Michael-Key became the latest character to voice Kamari Lion King. But before Keegan, Jim Cummings was the voice artist. This post is about the two actors, Cummings and Michael-Key. Meet them.

Kamari Lion King: Jim Cumming’s birth and career

Jim Cummings was born in Youngstown, Ohio, on November 3, 1952. The identity of his parents or siblings is not known. He attended Immaculate Conception and St.Columba grade schools before moving to Ursuline High School where he graduated in 1970.

Very early in his life, Jim Cummings relocated to New Orleans, where he designed and painted Mardi Gras floats, worked as a riverboat deckhand and sang and played drums in the regionally successful rock band, “FUSION”. Jim is a box of talent and immediately he discovered his voice acting talent, he moved to Anaheim, California, where he managed a video store in the early 1980s, before launching his voice-acting career in late 1984.

Jim Cummings is 67 years old.

Jim Cummings started his career in 1986 when he voiced the character of General Muoro in the Japanese animated steampunk fantasy-adventure film “Castle in the Sky”. The film won the Animage Anime Grand Prix in 1986. The film has received positive reviews and grossed over $15.5 million at the box office, a fine beginning for Jim.

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Jim continued to offer voice roles in various films and television series as his voice was highly sought after as it was deep enough to be manipulated for different characters. Jim remains the only actor to appear in every animated series produced by Disney during the ’90s. These include “Gargoyles”, “Goof Troop”, “Darkwing Duck”, “Aladdin” and “Bonkers”. When actor Jeremy Irons, the voice of Scar in The Lion King, developed vocal problems during the recording of the song “Be Prepared”, Cummings replaced him on the remainder of the track.

He played the voice-over role in Mark Hamill’s Comic Book “The Movie” in 2004. During an interview with Disney comics, he cited Darkwing Duck and Don Karnage as two of his favorite roles, stating “they’re both probably the closest to me – I kinda improvise a lot of them, kinda ad-lib”.

In 2018, he became the first voice performer of animation to reprise his roles for a live-action Disney film, reprising the roles of Winnie the Pooh and Tigger for the film “Christopher Robin”. In 2019, he is playing the voice of Broccoli, Watch, Hog in “Apple & Onion”. He has offered additional voices in other projects.

Cummings’ Marriage, net worth, and other facts

Jim Cummings has been married twice. He married Stephanie Cummings on November 11, 2001, and they divorced on August 31, 2011. The marriage was blessed with two daughters. Stephanie is also an actress known for films like “Becoming the Reaper” and “Love Train”. Jim Cummings also has two children from his previous marriage. After his divorce, he has not remarried maybe he is not thinking towards that direction.

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Jim Cummings has a net worth of 5 million dollars. Some make money with their hands while people like Jim make money with their voice. There are not many voice actors in the show business and Jim has even stated this in one interview, this means he might continue to land voice acting roles even when he turns 80.

Jim Cummings is not related to Brian Cummings. He is the father of actress of Raleigh West and he has not appeared in any movie as an actor, his voice roles are just enough for him.

Kamari Lion King latest character: Keegan Michael-Key

Keegan Michael-Key was born in the month of March 1971 to a black father and a white mother in Southfield, Michigan. Michael-Key was adopted by a couple in Detroit. As with his biological parents, his new father is black and his mother white. For education, he attended Shrine Catholic High School in Royal Oak, Michigan, the University of Detroit Mercy, and the Pennsylvania State University.

keegan’s career began in 1999 when he appeared in the obscured movie, “Get the Hell Out of Hamtown”. A few appearances on TV and movies followed; in 2014, he joined the comedy sketch series MAD TV and played various characters in the show for 107 episodes. It was with this show that he established himself as a comedian of note and also a writer. Keegan has gone on to appear in a handle of shoes including “SuperMansion”, “Key & Peele”, “The Planet Funniest Animals” on TV and voice-acts for “Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation”, “Toy Story 4”, and “The Lego Movie”.

See also: Joe Piscopo

In 1998, Michael-Key got married to the actress and dialect coach Cynthia Blaise. The couple separated in 2015 and got their divorce in 2017. In 2008, he got married to the actress Elisa Pugliese. Marriage is not the only aspect where Michael-Key has shown a lack of consistency. He has had a share of religions. He was a Buddhist, a Catholic, a firebrand Evangelical, and now a Christain.

Image source: Theblast