---
name: "John McLeish"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/john-mcleish"
roles: ["Actor"]
born: "1 January 1916"
died: "30 October 1968"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 2
average_fi1m_score: 88
updated: "2026-09-17T05:55:55.722067+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# John McLeish

Actor. Born 1 January 1916 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Died 30 October 1968.

## Details

- **Work:** Actor
- **Born:** 1 January 1916, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
- **Died:** 30 October 1968
- **Active:** 1940–1941
- **Also known as:** John Fraser McLeish
- **Elsewhere:** https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3182065, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0572689/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/69136

## Streaming the US now

- **Disney+:** [*Pinocchio*](https://film.one/film/pinocchio.md) (88)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Biography

John McLeish, also credited as John Fraser McLeish and John Ployardt, was a Canadian voice actor and writer. Born in Montreal, Quebec, he began working at Walt Disney Productions as a writer in the late 1930s before providing numerous uncredited voice roles.

He is known for narrating many of the Goofy "How To" shorts, including *Goofy's Glider* (1940), *The Art of Skiing* (1941), *How to Swim* (1942) and *Goofy Gymnastics* (1949). McLeish voiced the Prosecutor in *The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad* (1949) and the Carnival Barker in *Pinocchio* (1940). He also contributed to story development on the "Rite of Spring" segment of *Fantasia* (1940).

In 1948 McLeish and painter William Copley opened the Copley Galleries in Beverly Hills, which exhibited surrealist works before closing after one year. He died in Montreal on 30 October 1968.

*Sources: imdb.com, disney.fandom.com, wikimili.com.*

## On Fi1m (2)

- *Dumbo* (1941), Fi1m 87, as Narrator (voice) (uncredited) — [page](https://film.one/film/dumbo.md)
- *Pinocchio* (1940), Fi1m 88, as Carnival Barker (voice) (uncredited) — [page](https://film.one/film/pinocchio.md)

## Also known for

- *The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad* (1949), Prosecutor (voice)
- *The Art of Skiing* (1941), Narrator (voice) (uncredited)
- *How to Fish* (1942), Narrator (voice) (uncredited)
- *The Olympic Champ* (1942), Narrator (voice) (uncredited)
- *Goofy Gymnastics* (1949), Narrator (voice)
- *How to Swim* (1942), Narrator (voice)
- *The Dover Boys at Pimento University or The Rivals of Roquefort Hall* (1942), Narrator (voice) (uncredited)
- *The Wind in the Willows* (1949), Prosecutor (voice)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/john-mcleish