Peter Cullen, the unmistakable voice behind Optimus Prime in the blockbuster Transformers franchise and Eeyore in scores of Winnie the Pooh projects, has died. He was 85.
Cullen died Wednesday at his Los Angeles home, his agent, Kevin Motley, told The Hollywood Reporter.
The voice-acting legend “passed away peacefully, 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 relatives asked fans “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’.”
Born in Montreal, Cullen spent more than four decades as the commanding voice of Optimus Prime, the noble, truck-transforming leader of the Autobots.
But when Cullen first auditioned for the role, he had little idea what to make of it.
“I auditioned like everybody else,” he told NPR in 2014. “I was told it was a hero, and I was told it was a truck.”
Cullen landed the part and debuted as Optimus Prime in the syndicated animated series The Transformers, which ran from 1984 to 1987. The program was based on Hasbro’s enormously popular toy line and produced by Marvel Productions with animation studios in Japan and South Korea.
The character was killed during a brutal showdown with Megatron in The Transformers: The Movie in 1986, leaving young fans stunned and sparking a furious backlash. Producers eventually brought Cullen and Optimus back in the two-part television story The Return of Optimus Prime.
Two decades later, director Michael Bay revived Transformers as a live-action spectacle starring Shia LaBeouf. Bringing Cullen back for the 2007 film was an easy call.
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“I describe it as kind of slipping into an old pair of very comfortable shoes that you haven’t worn for a while,” he told IGN in 2007. “I just slipped right into them, and they felt as good as the last time I put them on.”
The gamble paid off. Transformers hauled in $709.7 million worldwide, becoming the fifth-highest-grossing film across the globe that year.
Cullen returned for Revenge of the Fallen in 2009, which collected $836.3 million worldwide. Dark of the Moon in 2011 and Age of Extinction in 2014 each thundered past the $1.1 billion mark.
He later reprised Optimus in The Last Knight in 2017, Bumblebee in 2018 and Rise of the Beasts in 2023, along with numerous Transformers television shows and video games.
Cullen’s booming voice also reached far beyond the Autobots.
He provided King Kong’s vocal effects for the 1976 remake, voiced the sinister K.A.R.R., short for Knight Automated Roving Robot, on Knight Rider in 1982 and again in 2009, and created the terrifying clicking sounds made by the alien hunter in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Predator in 1987.
Before becoming one of Hollywood’s most recognizable voices, Cullen worked as a live-action performer and announcer on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour.
He found another beloved role as the perpetually gloomy Eeyore beginning with the 1988-91 animated series The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. Cullen continued playing the droopy donkey in Winnie the Pooh: A Very Merry Pooh Year in 2002 and numerous other Disney productions.
“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,’” Cullen said.
Peter Claver Cullen was born July 28, 1941, to American parents Henry and Muriel Cullen. His father was a longtime newsprint executive with International Paper Sales Co.
Cullen discovered his gift for mimicry while spending time on a relative’s farm.
“I remember the very first summer, I could imitate the cows, the calves, the chickens, the different dogs they had,” he recalled.
He graduated with the National Theatre School of Canada’s inaugural class in 1963, studied under operatic coach Bernard Diamant and performed Shakespeare in Stratford, Ontario. He later spent a year with the repertory company at Toronto’s Crest Theatre before launching the voice-acting career that would make him a hero to generations of Transformers fans.
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