January 4

You may not have known his name, but you couldn’t miss his voice, especially when he played a small cartoon bear — and that was just one of over 150 movies and TV shows Sterling Holloway did.

Holloway was born in 1905 in Cedartown. He attended the Georgia Military Academy before moving on to New York and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

Holloway worked on Broadway before getting a lot of work in film and radio in the 1930s and 40s. His bushy red hair and distinctive falsetto voice got him noticed in whatever roles he played. With the advent of television, Holloway guest starred on everything from “The Andy Griffith Show” to “The Twilight Zone.”

Holloway began doing voiceover work for Walt Disney with Dumbo in 1941 and continued with Bambi, Alice in Wonderland, and, most famously, as the voice of Winnie the Pooh.

Holloway died at 87 in 1992 but his legacy as the voice of a naïve but lovable bear has immortalized the man born on January 4, 1905, Today in Georgia History.