Peter Cullen, prolific voice actor who gave Optimus Prime his
authoritative baritone, has died
[August 28, 2026]
By MARK KENNEDY
NEW YORK (AP) — Peter Cullen, a prolific voice actor who enlivened
scores of TV series, specials and movies, including Optimus Prime in the
syndicated 1984 series “Transformers” and Eeyore in the Winnie the Pooh
cartoon franchise, has died. He was 85.
His agent, Kevin Motley, said Cullen died Wednesday at his home in Los
Angeles. “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,'" said a
family statement.
Cullen's career spanned from being an announcer at the groundbreaking
late-1960s comedy and variety series “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour”
and joining comedy sketches for Sonny & Cher to voice acting in “The
Smurfs” and multiple G.I. Joe iterations. But he struck a nerve as
Optimus Prime.
While the original cartoon ran just a few years, it left an indelible
mark on pop culture, with a toy line, spinoff cartoon series and comics
produced over the next two decades. That culminated in the launch of a
multibillion-dollar, live-action film franchise in 2007 by Michael Bay.
Before his audition, Cullen only knew that he would be reading for the
part of a truck, though giving voice to a vehicle didn’t seem that
crazy. “You’re always auditioning for something in animation that’s a
little off of the norm,” Cullen told the AP in 2019.
When Cullen read about the heroic Autobot leader that turned into a red
cabover semitrailer, he thought about his older brother, who had served
as a U.S. Marine in the Vietnam War.
“He was my hero, and he certainly was the mainstay behind the
character,” Cullen said. “I just did an impression of Larry, and he’s
still alive in my mind today because every time I do Prime, there’s my
brother Larry.”
Cullen’s authoritative baritone as Optimus Prime also appeared in 2009's
“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” through “Dark of the Moon,” “Age
of Extinction,” “The Last Knight,” “Bumblebee” and "Rise of the Beasts”
in 2023.
His thoughtful, almost operatic lines would be quoted for decades by
kids and adults alike: “I am Optimus Prime, and I send this message to
any surviving Autobots taking refuge among the stars: We are here. We
are waiting,” he said in the first movie. In another, he intoned: “Fate
rarely calls upon us at a moment of our choosing.”
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Peter Cullen attends The Paley Honors: A Gala Tribute to Hasbro's
Centennial in New York on Oct. 23, 2023. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP,
File)
 Other highlights from Cullen's
prolific career include voicing Eeyore across various
“Winnie-the-Pooh” projects, including Disney’s “The New Adventures
of Winnie the Pooh” TV series that aired from 1988-91, as well as
voicing the villainous KARR opposite KITT in the 1980s NBC series
“Knight Rider,” and lending his pipes to King Kong in the Jeff
Bridges-led “King Kong” remake in 1976.
“Optimus is my favorite character because it’s been so well received
and it’s had such an effect on so many people,” Cullen told The New
York Times in 2008. “Because of that, I hold it closer than any
other character I’ve done — outside of maybe Eeyore, who’s had a
considerable effect on younger children too."
One of Cullen's strangest jobs had no words at all: He provided the
clicking sounds for the main alien creature in “Predator,” which he
said he based on the sounds of a dying horseshoe crab.
Cullen received a lifetime achievement award at the Children’s &
Family Emmy Awards in 2023 and was nominated for a Daytime Emmy for
voicing Optimus Prime in 2011.
Cullen would attend conventions around the country to meet with fans
from multiple generations, often getting teary. He said parents
sometimes got more excited than their children meeting him.
“I expect that I will run into a father with his son, and the father
will more than likely get choked up,” Cullen said before MegaCon
Orlando in 2019. “And then I get choked up, and then the kid is
saying ‘What are these two grown men getting choked up about?’ ”
Cullen is survived by his four children, Angus, Claire, Pilar and
Clay.
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