Peter Cullen, the voice actor behind Autobots leader Optimus Prime in “Transformers” and the mopey Eeyore in several “Winnie-the-Pooh” projects, died Wednesday, his agent Kevin Motley confirmed. He was 85.
Cullen died Aug. 26 at his home in Los Angeles, “surrounded by his loving family — and held in the hearts of his many friends and countless fans worldwide,” his family said 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,’” the family statement continued.
Cullen was a prolific voice actor whose credits numbered in the hundreds. His most distinctive role was as Optimus Prime across several “Transformers” shows, films and video games. He originated the Autobots leader’s deep, authoritative voice in the 1980s animated series “The Transformers,” which chronicled the war between the Autobots and Decepticons and spawned a subsequent feature film. He returned to the role after roughly two decades away for Michael Bay’s 2007 live-action “Transformers” movie adaptation, which spawned a new generation of content across five sequels, a “Bumblebee” spinoff, multiple animated shows and video games. His work in the 2010 series “Transformers: Prime” earned him a Daytime Emmy nomination.
Cullen said the voice of Optimus Prime was inspired by his brother Larry, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who he saw as his personal hero following Larry’s service in Vietnam.
“It was his tone of voice and delivery as a leader, his control that impressed me, and I applied my brother’s attitude to life to Optimus Prime,” Cullen told Reading Eagle in 2008 (via Gizmodo). “It just rang a bell, and I was cast in that part. I guess people somehow picked up on that. There’s a calmness to Optimus Prime, and yet a gentility and strength and honor and dignity, that are synonymous with the Marines.”
But despite his apparent marriage to the role across several “Transformers” projects, he said in a 2014 Reading Eagle interview that he never assumed his job would be permanent.
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“You don’t know what the powers-that-be will do,” he said. “I don’t and never really have understood how they make their decisions when they do or why they do, so I’m always a little apprehensive about whether or not they’ll change their minds and bring in somebody else, because nothing is permanent in this business, and I’ve never taken it for granted by any means.”
Aside from his work as Optimus Prime, Cullen lent his voice to the perennially depressed donkey Eeyore across various “Winnie-the-Pooh” projects, including Disney’s “The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh” TV series that aired from 1988-91. He described during a Transformers convention appearance that taking on the role following years as Optimus was a “relief,” and he has since described Eeyore as his favorite character to play after the “Transformers” hero.
“I get an awful lot of reactions from, especially, young kids, when I go up and just say [in Eeyore’s voice], ‘Hello. Thanks for noticing me,‘” he told NPR in 2014. “And to see their faces light up, that to me is one of the great joys.”
Other roles throughout his career include the announcer on “The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour” in the 1970s; the clicking sounds of the eponymous Predator in the 1987 sci-fi action film; the voice of the villainous KARR in the 1980s NBC series “Knight Rider”; and the voice of King Kong in the Jeff Bridges-led “King Kong” remake in 1976. Most recently, he voiced the Viltrumite turncoat Thaedus in the 2021 Prime Video animated series “Invincible.”
Cullen was born in Montreal on July 28, 1941, one of four children to Americans Henry and Muriel Cullen. He graduated from the National Theatre School of Canada in 1963, and he later worked at Toronto’s Crest Theatre as part of its repertory company.
Cullen spent some of his childhood working on a farm, telling NPR in 2014 his earliest vocal lessons came from imitating the chickens, cows and dogs that littered the farmland.
“I had a full dairy barn where I would collect milk pails with my brother, Larry,” he told the radio outlet. “I found one day that I made a loud noise and all the cows looked up to me. So I did something like, “And now that I have your attention!” And they all looked up. And I walked down the center of that aisle with these cows looking at me and I said, ‘This is fantastic.’ I must have been 8 years old … and I was the king of the cows.”
Cullen is survived by his four children, Angus, Claire, Pilar and Clay.
From Variety US