Junius Matthews

Junius Conyers Matthews (June 12, 1890 – January 18, 1978) was an American actor born in Illinois who worked across theater, film, radio, and television throughout a career spanning more than six decades. He is perhaps best remembered as the original voice of Rabbit in Disney's Winnie the Pooh franchise and as the voice of Archimedes the Owl in Disney's The Sword in the Stone (1963).

Matthews launched his professional career on the Broadway stage, making his first appearance in 1914 and continuing to perform there through 1929. His early Broadway work included Young Wisdom (1914) and Any House (1916). Among his other stage credits from this period were The Phantom Legion, The Little Clay Cart, The Dybbuk, The Critic, and The Humble. His screen work began during this same era when he appeared in the silent film The Silent Witness (1917), though his performing career was interrupted when he served as a private during World War I.

Through the 1920s, Matthews divided his time between stage productions and radio work. On radio he took on a range of roles, including the Tin Woodsman in a radio adaptation of The Wizard of Oz. His voice became a recognizable presence in radio westerns, where he was frequently cast as elderly characters such as miners, old codgers, and cooks. He appeared on the short-lived series Luke Slaughter of Tombstone as Slaughter's sidekick, Wichita, and played Ling Wee, a Chinese waiter, in Gasoline Alley. Matthews also made guest appearances on multiple television series during the 1950s and 1960s.

His association with Disney began with The Sword in the Stone (1963), in which he voiced Archimedes the Owl. Matthews then became the original voice of Rabbit in the Winnie the Pooh series of films produced by Disney between 1966 and 1977, a role he held for the final decade of his life. His Rabbit appearances included the featurettes Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966), Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968), and Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too! (1974), as well as the feature-length compilation The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977). Following his death, the role of Rabbit was assumed first by Will Ryan and later by Ken Sansom.

Matthews died on January 18, 1978, at a Los Angeles hospital from cardiovascular disease, having suffered a stroke the previous year that had left him nearly unable to work. He was 87 years old at the time of his death and is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills.