![\"2016](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787865252_775_0x0.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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)<\/p>\n
WireImage<\/p>\n
Peter Cullen, the longtime voice actor of Autobot leader Optimus Prime in the Transformers animated series and live-action movies, has died.<\/p>\n
Cullen\u2019s agent, Kevin Motley, told TMZ<\/a> that his client died at his home on Wednesday in Los Angeles. He was 85. Cullen\u2019s cause of death was not given.<\/p>\n \u201cPeter Cullen passed away peacefully, surrounded by his loving family – and held in the hearts of his many friends and countless fans worldwide,\u201d Cullen\u2019s family told TMZ in a statement. \u201cHis 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.’\u201d<\/p>\n 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)<\/p>\n AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Apart from Cullen\u2019s other Transformers animated project, the voice actor began a long run with director Michael Bay\u2019s Transformers movie franchise, which began with the 2007 film starring Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox and Josh Duhamel<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n ForbesDolly Parton Dead At 80: Looking Back On The Queen Of Country\u2019s LegacyBy Tim Lammers<\/a><\/p>\n 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<\/a>, Cullen discussed his affinity for the sullen character when asked who his favorite character to voice was outside of Optimus Prime.<\/p>\n “I loved the characters that were easiest to do, that didn\u2019t require a lot of screaming and yelling, and stuff like that, because screaming and yelling, it\u2019s hard work,” Cullen told Collider. \u201cBut my favorite, outside of Prime, was Eeyore.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2023, Cullen was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award<\/a> from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences at the 2nd Annual Children\u2019s & 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.<\/p>\n ForbesWhy Dolly Parton Refused To Talk About Politics During Her CareerBy Tim Lammers<\/a><\/p>\n 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\u2019s<\/a> 1987 blockbuster Predator.<\/p>\n Cullen\u2019s vocal work for Predator wasn\u2019t 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<\/a>, Cullen\u2019s said he used the clicking sound made by the breaking bubbles coming from an upside-down horseshoe crab to define the Predator\u2019s sound.<\/p>\n