Peter Cullen, best known as the voice of Optimus Prime for the last 40 years, has died at his home at the age of 85. His agent confirmed the news to The Hollywood Reporter, saying he “passed away peacefully, surrounded by his loving family.” The actor, who provided the voice of Eeyore in decades of Disney productions, was also known to many as the narrator for Cartoon Network’s Toonami block.
Born in 1941, Canadian Cullen first came to fame as a regular on 1972’s The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, before turning to voice acting in the later ’70s. In 1984 he provided voices for Gremlins, at the same time as playing Venger in the early-’80s Dungeons & Dragons cartoon. Then also in 1984, his baritone voice earned him the role of Optimus Prime in the original animated Transformers TV series, a role he would go on to reprise for the rest of his life.
In the meantime, Cullen would provide the (uncredited) voice of the Predator in 1987’s Arnie classic film of the same name, Monterey Jack in Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers, and, starting in 1988, the voice of Eeyore in all of Disney’s Winnie the Pooh animations. But as well as the higher profile roles, the actor appeared in just about any classic cartoon you care to remember, including nostalgia-assaulting oddities like Snorks, Rainbow Brite and BraveStarr.
His deep voice and ubiquitous association with animation led to his becoming intrinsically associated with Cartoon Network’s Toonami programming block in 1997, where he provided narration and promotional voiceover work as the Big Guy until its first demise in 2008.
Optimal Prime
In 2007, when Michael Bay was looking to reboot the Transformers franchise as a live-action movie series, his original choice for Optimus Prime was Liam Neeson. The ILM animators were even instructed to use Neeson as their reference point for the giant robot. However, as Bay revealed on the first movie’s director’s commentary, his producers pushed back against this choice and insisted on bringing back Peter Cullen to reprise his iconic role. Cullen would then go on to play the Autobot leader in all of Bay’s movies, as well as all manner of tie-in materials, associated video games, new TV animations, and indeed the post-Bay movies, Bumblebee and Transformers: Rise of the Beasts.
In the last few years, Cullen played Optimus Prime for his appearance in Fortnite, voiced an appearance on The Masked Singer, and most recently played Thaedus on Invincible.
His family has put out a statement asking that fans “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’.”