Trivia

Turned down a contract with Louis B. Mayer at MGM because he didn't want to be a star.

His father, who was a grocer, was also the mayor of his birthplace, Cedartown, GA, for a time in 1912.

A director once told him he was "too repulsive" for the screen and he stopped making movies for nearly five years. Following the stock market crash of 1929, the money factor eventually drew him back to making sound pictures.

Although he never married, he did adopt a son named Richard Holloway, who survived him when he died in 1992.

Worked on a few Will Rogers movies and was injured in a couple of them. Once, a shelf loaded with objects fell on his head after Rogers lassoed the prop and pulled it out of place. Another time, a gun that Holloway was supposed to fire in a scene accidentally exploded in his hand.

Holloway was officially named a Disney Legend in 1991.

Had major roles in two different film adaptations of "Alice in Wonderland". In Paramount's 1933 version, (Alice in Wonderland (1933)), he played the Frog. In Disney's 1951 animated version, (Alice in Wonderland (1951)), he provided the voice of the Cheshire Cat.

In 1946 and 1947, he sang and acted in five different Gene Autry westerns (four of them in 1947), twice playing a character named "Droopy". His characters were usually part of the comic relief inherent in Autry's westerns, almost a second sidekick.

Educated at the Georgia Military Academy and performed in school plays while there.

Drafted by the Army in 1942 and served with the Special Services. While there, he helped develop a military-themed show called "Hey Rookie", which ran for nine months in Los Angeles and profited $350,000 for the Army Relief Fund.

He was an avid art collector.

Holloway grew up at 301 S. College Street in Cedartown, GA. The street which formed the corner on which Holloway's house was located is now known as Sterling Holloway Place.

Was associated for a time with the Pasadena Playhouse and took part in a musical comedy, "Hullabaloo", while there in 1931. Somebody saw him in the show and he was cast in Blonde Venus (1932), starring Marlene Dietrich.

His big break came in 1925 when he introduced Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart's first hit song, "Manhattan", in the Broadway play "Garrick Gaieties".

Was enrolled with the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York at the age of 15.

Enlisted in the U.S. Army on July 19, 1942. Height and weight given as 5' 9" and 124 lb.

Introduced the song standard "Mountain Greenery" along with Bobbie Perkins in "The Garrick Gaities" in 1926.

According to Joe Collura in a full-length article/interview on Sterling in "Classic Images", Sterling was a distant relative of Lady Penelope Boothby, an English stage actress, who was immortalized on canvas by artist Sir Joshua Reynolds.

In his late teens, he toured with a stock company of "The Shepherd of the Hills".

Had a younger brother named Boothby Holloway (1909-1978).

Alumnus of the AADA (American Academy of Dramatic Arts), Class of 1923.

Was considered to voice two Disney characters that his "Winnie The Pooh" co-star, John Fiedler, voiced: Sexton, the church mouse, in "Robin Hood" and the Deacon Owl in "The Rescuers".

He has appeared in four films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933), Dumbo (1941), Bambi (1942) and A Walk in the Sun (1945).

Died on the 29th anniversary of the John F. Kennedy assassination.

Uncle of Sterling Holloway III and Great Uncle of Sterling Holloway IV, who are the son and grandson of his brother, Boothby Holloway.

He supported the candidacy of Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 1952 presidential election.

He died on November 22, 1992, which was the day when actress Scarlett Johansson turned eight years old. She would voice his character, Kaa, in the live-action version of Disney's The Jungle Book (2016).