Who was the voice behind baloo the bear in the Disney movie Jungle Book?!
Question:
Who was the voice behind baloo the bear in the Disney movie Jungle Book?
He also played the Sargent Oroark in F-Troop.
Answers:
Phil Harris, who was an American singer, songwriter, jazz musician and comedian. Though successful as an orchestra leader, Harris is remembered today for his recordings as a vocalist, his voice work in animation and the radio situation comedy in which he co-starred with his second wife, singer-actress Alice Faye, for eight years.
The Jungle Book was his greatest success in the years following his radio heyday. He voiced the character and sang one of the film's showstoppers, "The Bare Necessities," a performance that introduced Harris to a new generation of young fans who had no idea he was once a popular radio star. Harris also joins Louis Prima in "I Wanna Be Like You", delivering a memorable scat-singing performance. "The Aristocats" which follows many of the same patterns as "The Jungle Book" again features Harris in the movie's showstopper, "Thomas O'Malley" and joining Scatman Crothers(and others)in the raucous "Everybody Wants To Be A Cat". In 1989, Harris briefly returned to Disney to once again voice Baloo, this time for the cartoon series TaleSpin which was in production at the time. Unfortunately, he had aged enough by then that he could no longer do the voice successfully. He was replaced later by actor Ed Gilbert. His last animated film project was in the 1991 film Rock-A-Doodle directed by Don Bluth, in which he played the friendly, laid back farm dog Patou.