Acclaimed Canadian voice actor Peter Cullen, who brought the iconic heroic robot Optimus Prime to life in the Transformers franchise, has died at his home in Los Angeles at the age of 85.
His representative confirmed his death to the Daily Mail on Wednesday, though no cause of death was specified. Cullen passed away peacefully surrounded by his family.
"Peter Cullen 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 an official 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 statement added.
In addition to leading the Autobots, Cullen was famous among fans of retro children's television as the voice of Eeyore on The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, which ran from 1988 to 1991.
Early life and acting career
Peter Claver Cullen was born in Montreal in 1941. He grew up alongside three siblings, including his brother Larry, who would later inspire the commanding voice of Optimus Prime.
Cullen originally harbored ambitions of becoming a serious dramatic actor. He studied Shakespeare as part of the first graduating class of the National Theatre School of Canada before shifting direction.
"I soon came to the conclusion that I really wasn't cut out to be the artsy guy," Cullen recalled in an interview with The Young Folks. "I had too much fun. I had followed the experience of grade school and high school by being the clown."
He began his career working on local film and television projects in Montreal, as well as performing in nightclub revues where he developed a wide range of character voices and accents.
Moving to Hollywood with his young wife and child, he appeared on a television comedy in the style of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In that flopped. Scrambling to pick up the pieces, Cullen eventually secured an announcing job on The Sonny & Cher Show.
A key turning point came when legendary comedian Jonathan Winters, star of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, offered him career advice. "You know, Peter, what you ought to do is, you ought to do your voices," Winters told him. "Those voices, you could make a lot of bread."
Cullen went on to work a series of supporting voice roles on popular animated shows, including Scooby-Doo & Scrappy-Doo and Alvin and the Chipmunks.
The creation of Optimus Prime
His major career breakthrough arrived in 1984 when he aced a "cattle call" audition for The Transformers. He was cast as Optimus Prime, the noble leader of the heroic alien machines known as the Autobots.
Before heading to the audition, Cullen told his brother Larry, a Marine Corps captain who had returned from fighting in Vietnam with a transformed perspective on life, that he was auditioning for a giant truck. "No, he's a hero truck," Cullen remembered telling Larry, who laughed before turning serious.
"Well Peter, if you're going to be a hero, be a real hero," Larry told him. "Don't be one of those phony Hollywood sounding types that think they're tough and they're not. Be compassionate, be strong enough to be gentle, and have a little dignity. But be strong."
With his brother's advice echoing in his mind, Cullen drew directly on Larry's calm, dignified tone during the audition, creating the definitive voice for Optimus Prime.
The animated series ran from 1984 to 1987 and became a massive children's favorite, spawning a multi-billion-dollar global franchise. Cullen reprised the role in the 1986 animated feature film The Transformers: The Movie, which notably marked the final feature film performance of Orson Welles.
Eeyore and further roles
In 1988, Cullen took on another iconic character when he was cast as the perpetually gloomy donkey Eeyore in Disney's The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. He continued voicing Eeyore across multiple popular titles, including The Tigger Movie, A Very Merry Pooh Year, Piglet's Big Movie, My Friends Tigger & Pooh, The Book of Pooh, and House of Mouse.
Speaking onstage at TF Con, Cullen joked that stepping into the gentle universe created by author A. A. Milne provided a welcome "relief" after years of high-octane action shows and movies.
Live-action blockbusters and legacy
Cullen introduced Optimus Prime to a new generation of moviegoers in 2007, starring in director Michael Bay's live-action blockbuster Transformers. The film featured an ensemble cast including Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, John Turturro, Tyrese Gibson, Jon Voight, and Anthony Anderson.
The 2007 movie became one of the highest-grossing films of the year and launched a long-running series of sequels. Bay directed the first five installments, two of which - Dark of the Moon in 2011 and Age of Extinction in 2014 - grossed over $1 billion each at the global box office.
Cullen remained the voice of Optimus Prime long after Bay departed the franchise, most recently performing the role in the 2023 feature film Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. For the 2024 origin film Transformers One, actor Chris Hemsworth took over the voice of a younger version of the character.
Reflecting on the franchise's billion-dollar success in an interview with IGN, Cullen expressed deep gratitude for his journey as Optimus Prime. "It's a staggering thought, and it's humbling at the same time," Cullen said.
"There is such great talent behind the scenes as well as from the artistry to the conception to the writing to the directing to the acting," he noted. "For me, I take great pride in being a part of it. It will never cease to be an area of conversation in my life, and thankfully so, because it is such a positive feeling to be able to talk about it. It's one of the highlights of my life."
