Peter Cullen, Iconic Voice Of Optimus Prime, Eeyore, Toonami, And More, Dies At 85

Peter Cullen, the prolific Canadian voice actor whose commanding yet compassionate performance as Optimus Prime defined the Transformers franchise for more than four decades, has died. He was 85.

Cullen died Wednesday at his Los Angeles home, according to a statement released by his family. No cause of death was disclosed.

Although Cullen accumulated hundreds of credits during a career spanning more than half a century, he was inextricably linked to Optimus Prime, the stoic protagonist of the Transformers franchise. He originated the role on the 1980s syndicated series The Transformers, giving the Autobot leader warmth and moral authority that directly contrasted with a cold, mechanical exterior designed, originally, to sell toys, not to tell complex and often surprisingly emotional stories. Many ‘80s kids still haven’t completely recovered from The Transformers: The Movie, even 40 years later.

Cullen based the performance on his older brother Larry, a decorated U.S. Marine who had served in Vietnam. Before Cullen’s audition, Larry advised him not to play a conventional Hollywood tough guy.

“Real heroes don’t yell and act tough,” Cullen recalled his brother telling him in an NPR interview back in 2014. “They’re tough enough to be gentle.”

His brother’s idea of heroism became central to Cullen’s interpretation of the character and arguably had a tremendous impact on generations of children who could look up to a strong leader who didn’t rely on bravado or overt displays of aggression.

Although Transformers continued in various forms, Cullen spent roughly two decades away from the role before returning for Michael Bay’s live-action Transformers in 2007. “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 at the time.

Cullen went on to voice Optimus in six more theatrical features, including Bumblebee and Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, as well as numerous animated series, video games, shorts, and promotional projects. His work on Transformers: Prime earned him a Daytime Emmy nomination in 2011.

Optimus may have been Cullen’s signature character, but the role represented only a small fraction of his remarkable body of work and showed just one side of his extraordinary vocal range. Beginning with The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh in 1988, he became the character’s main voice actor for nearly two decades, finding sweet, understated humor in the dour donkey’s defeated sighs.

Speaking about the role at TFCon in the video linked below, he explained: “There had only been one Eeyore before, and he was a cowboy… It was a little too gruff.” During his audition, Cullen dropped the country twang and got the job.

Cullen’s voice was also a defining part of Toonami’s early years, when he served as one of the block’s principal promotional announcers and narrated many of its instantly recognizable spots. Launched in 1997, Toonami became one of the most influential programming blocks in American animation history, introducing a generation of viewers to series including Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon, Gundam Wing, and Outlaw Star and playing a major role in bringing anime into the U.S. mainstream. Cullen’s gravitas made those episodes feel like events that nobody wanted to miss, helping give Toonami a sense of identity and importance that distinguished it from conventional cable programming.

Among his other major animation roles were the villainous Venger in Dungeons & Dragons, cheese-obsessed Australian mouse Monterey Jack in Chip ’n Dale: Rescue Rangers, Coran and King Alfor in Voltron, Commander James Hawkins in Vehicle Voltron, Mantus in The Pirates of Dark Water, and Ramrod in Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs. He also voiced Mario in the Donkey Kong segments of Saturday Supercade, making him the first performer to voice the Nintendo character in a Western production.

His nearly impossible-to-summarize résumé also included Spider-Man, G.I. Joe, My Little Pony and Friends, Rainbow Brite, Scooby and Scrappy-Doo, The Jetsons, DuckTales, Megas XLR, and Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. More recently, he voiced Thaedus in Prime Video’s breakout hit Invincible.

Outside animation, Cullen supplied the vocalizations for King Kong in the 1976 feature and created the unnerving clicking sounds of the alien hunter in Predator. He also voiced the malevolent artificial intelligence K.A.R.R. in Knight Rider.

Born Peter Claver Cullen in Montreal on July 28, 1941, he was a member of the National Theatre School of Canada’s first graduating class in 1963. He began his career in radio and live-action comedy, working as an announcer and performer on programs including The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, and The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show before finding his professional home behind the microphone.

In 2023, Cullen received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences at the Children’s and Family Emmy Awards.

In comments published by Transformer World, Cullen conveyed in just a few words both the magnitude of his legacy and the humility with which he regarded it: “I did something in my life that stood out, and I’m really grateful for that. Humbled by it.”