Junius Matthews

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Junius Conyers Matthews (June 12, 1890 - January 18, 1978) was an American actor.

Junius Matthews was born in Chicago, Illinois. He acted in Broadway shows in the early 1910s. Matthews first acted in a silent film called The Silent Witness in 1917. Also in 1917, Matthews enlisted in the US Army and saw action in France during World War I as a private. It was strange that Matthews was able to enlist because he was the height of 5,4 (1.63 m) which was under the height you needed to be to enlist.

In 1930, Matthews along with Sterling Holloway, James Stewart and Ralph Wright did the voices of Winnie the Pooh characters (1930 - 1939). Matthews did many other radio shows including the radio version of "The Wizard of Oz" (1941). Matthews acted in his second film called Seeds of Freedom (1943) as a speaker. He also acted in a lot of Noir films which were drama and horror films.

In the later years of his life, Matthews started doing voiceovers of animated films. His first voiceover was in "The Sword in the Stone" (1963) as Archimedes. The last dozen years of his life he did the voiceover of Rabbit in the "Winnie the Pooh" movies (1966 - 1977). He did the voiceover of "Rabbit" in Winnie the Pooh" movies such as Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966). He also did the voiceover of "Rabbit" in Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968) and Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too (1974). Matthews also did the voiceover of "Rabbit" in the The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977). He only was apart of the series for a couple of months because his health was failing at age 87. The following year he died of natural causes on January 18, 1978 in Los Angeles, California at age 87.