Sterling Holloway Hal Smith took over the role of Winnie the Pooh for the 1981 short "Winnie the Pooh Discovers the Seasons". He would maintain the role until Jim Cummings replaced him in 1988 for "The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" and also took over most of Holloway's other voice roles, including Kaa in "Jungle Cubs" and "The Jungle Book 2". Sterling Holloway Sterling Price Holloway Jr. (January 4, 1905 – November 22, 1992) was an American character actor and voice actor who appeared in over 100 films and 40 television shows. He was also a voice actor for The Walt
Winnie-the-Pooh right in "When We Were Very Young". In the first chapter of "Winnie-the-Pooh", Milne offers this explanation of why Winnie-the-Pooh is often called simply "Pooh": The American writer William Safire surmised that the Milnes' invention of the name "Winnie the Pooh" may have also been influenced by the haughty character Pooh-Bah in Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Mikado" (1885). The Winnie-the-Pooh stories are set in Ashdown Forest, East Sussex, England. The forest is a large area of tranquil open heathland on the highest sandy ridges of the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty situated 30 miles (50 km) south of