LOS ANGELES, CA – APRIL 29: Voice Over actor Peter Cullen attends the 2016 Daytime Creative Arts Emmy Awards – Arrivals at Westin Bonaventure Hotel on April 29, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Leon Bennett/WireImage)
WireImage
Peter Cullen, the longtime voice actor of Autobot leader Optimus Prime in the Transformers animated series and live-action movies, has died.
Cullen’s agent, Kevin Motley, told TMZ that his client died at his home on Wednesday in Los Angeles. He was 85. Cullen’s cause of death was not given.
“Peter Cullen passed away peacefully, surrounded by his loving family – and held in the hearts of his many friends and countless fans worldwide,” Cullen’s family told TMZ in a statement. “His family asks that you honor his remarkable legacy by serving your communities and leading others with compassion, integrity, and loyalty and always remember ‘be strong enough to be gentle.’”
Optimus Prime(L), from the worldwide blockbuster film “Transformers: Age of Extinction” is unveiled at a handprint ceremony outside the TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood, California on September 30, 2014 where the heroic leader of the Autobots was immortalized with the traditional ceremony for Hollywood stars, with Canadian voice actor Peter Cullen(R), the voice of Optimus Prime, dipping his hands into the cement. AFP PHOTO / Frederic J. BROWN (Photo credit should read FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)
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Cullen first voiced Optimus Prime for the syndicated animated series The Transformers from 1984 to 1987, and also voiced the role for the 1986 animated feature Transformers: The Movie.
Apart from Cullen’s other Transformers animated project, the voice actor began a long run with director Michael Bay’s Transformers movie franchise, which began with the 2007 film starring Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox and Josh Duhamel. Cullen subsequently reprised the voice of Optimus Prime for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Transformers: Age of Extinction and Transformers: The Last Knight. He last voiced the character in live-action for the 2023 hit Transformers: Rise of the Beasts.
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Cullen also voiced such iconic animated characters as the stuffed donkey Eeyore in the series The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. In a 2023 interview with Collider, Cullen discussed his affinity for the sullen character when asked who his favorite character to voice was outside of Optimus Prime.
“I loved the characters that were easiest to do, that didn’t require a lot of screaming and yelling, and stuff like that, because screaming and yelling, it’s hard work,” Cullen told Collider. “But my favorite, outside of Prime, was Eeyore.”
In 2023, Cullen was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences at the 2nd Annual Children’s & Family Emmy Awards. Before that, Cullen was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program for his voice work as Optimus Prime in the series Transformers Prime.
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Cullen also provided sounds for the title character in the 1976 version of King Kong, starring Jeff Bridges and Jessica Lange, and Mogwai in the 1984 hit Gremlins, as well as the title character in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 1987 blockbuster Predator.
Cullen’s vocal work for Predator wasn’t so much a voice as it was a clicking noise that stuck in his brain during a trip to the beach in Massachusetts. In a 2023 interview with Collider, Cullen’s said he used the clicking sound made by the breaking bubbles coming from an upside-down horseshoe crab to define the Predator’s sound.
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Born Peter Claven Cullen on July 28, 1941, in Montreal, Cullen’s first credited voice role was in a guest role in the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation series Shoestring Theatre in 1964.
Cullen’s big break in Hollywood came three years later, when he was hired as an announcer for the CBS variety series The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. Cullen was an announcer on the series for 32 episodes from 1967 to 1968. He also played various characters on 60 episodes of the CBS variety series The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, over four seasons from 1971 to 1974.
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Cullen’s career, however, mostly consisted of voicing characters. Cullen’s voice landed him as a regular in several notable animated series, including Spider-Man (1981 through 1982), Voltron: Defender of the Universe, Dungeons & Dragons, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, Ghostbusters, Rambo, My Little Pony and Chip ‘n’ Dale: Rescue Rangers.
The prolific voice actor’s final role was in the guest role of the character Thadeus in the Prime Video animated series Invincible, who was in multiples episodes from 2023 to 2026.
Cullen is survived by four children, Angus, Claire, Pilar and Clay.