King Louie is a fictional character introduced in Walt Disney's 1967 animated musical film, The Jungle Book. Unlike the majority of the adapted characters in the film, Louie was not featured in Rudyard Kipling's original works. King Louie was portrayed as an orangutan who was the leader of the other jungle primates, and who attempted to gain knowledge of fire from Mowgli, in order to become more human. King Louie was voiced by Louis Prima in the original 1967 film. Initially, the filmmakers considered Louis Armstrong for the role, but to avoid the likely controversy that would result from casting a black person to voice an ape, they instead chose Prima, a white singer. Christopher Walken voiced King Louie in the 2016 live-action/CGI The Jungle Book film.
