John James MacDonald was a Scottish-American foley artist, voice actor, actor, musician and conductor. He was the original head of the Disney sound effects department and was also the voice of Mickey Mouse from 1947 to 1978.
Early life
He was born in Dundee, Scotland, on May 19, 1906. His parents were Richard William MacDonald and Minnie Hall. The family emigrated to America when MacDonald was one month old. They travelled via the SS Haverford from Liverpool, England, arriving in Pennsylvania 15 days later. As a young man, MacDonald landed a job as a musician on the Dollar Steam Ship Lines, which in 1934 led to an opportunity to record music for a Disney cartoon. He went on to secure a permanent contract with Disney, becoming head of the sound department.
Career
Sound effects
In addition to directing sounds for animated shorts as aurally complicated as Mickey's Trailer, he developed many original inventions and contraptions to achieve expressive sounds for characters like Casey Jr., the circus train engine from Dumbo ; Evinrude the dragonfly from The Rescuers ; the bees in Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree ; and Buzz-buzz, the bee who gets the best ofDonald Duck in his 1950s short films. He also made the sound effects of Tick Tock the crocodile from Peter Pan and Dragon Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty by using castanets. MacDonald also added voice effects, like on-screen humming for Kirk Douglas in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Many of his effects are available on Cartoon Trax Volume 1, from The Hollywood Edge, which was released in 1992. A few of his other effects showed up on other non-Disney sound libraries, such as the International Sound Effects Library and the Hanna-Barbera Sound Effects Library, both from Sound Ideas. Some other releases containing MacDonald's sound effects include a few specialty sound effect record releases from Disneyland Records, most notably Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House. By the time of his death, he was preparing to work on the sounds for the Splash Mountain attraction in Tokyo and Walt Disney World.
Voice acting
James MacDonald did the first test yodeling for the dwarfs in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs before they brought in professional yodelers as well as doing some sounds for Dopey such as his hiccuping and sobbing. By 1947, Walt Disney was getting too busy and too hoarse from smoking to continue voicing Mickey Mouse, so he was replaced by MacDonald after the film Fun and Fancy Free. MacDonald voiced Mickey Mouse until 1977, when he was replaced by young Disney sound-effects man Wayne Allwine for The New Mickey Mouse Club MacDonald was the original voice actor for Chip, one half of the duo Chip and Dale. He provided the voice of Lumpjaw in Fun and Fancy Free, Jaq and Gus the mice and Bruno the dog in Cinderella, the Dormouse in Alice in Wonderland, Humphrey the Bear, the howling of the dogs at the pound in Lady and the Tramp, the Wolf in The Sword in the Stone, and the hyena in Bedknobs and Broomsticks. He appeared in the film Toby Tyler as the Circus Band Drummer, but was uncredited and appeared in Fantasia as one of the musicians. MacDonald played drums in the Firehouse Five Plus Two jazz band. He played with the band on and off from its inception until it disbanded in the early 1970s.
Personal life
MacDonald was married to Roberta MacDonald in 1936, they were married until his death in 1991.
