Peter Cullen

Peter Claver Cullen (born July 28, 1941) is a Canadian voice actor. He is best known as the voice of Optimus Prime in the original 1980s Transformers animated series, and most other incarnations of the character. He has also voiced many other characters across a wide variety of popular media, including Eeyore in the Winnie the Pooh franchise, Monterey Jack in Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, and the first voice of KARR in Knight Rider. In 2007, Cullen returned to the role of Optimus Prime in various Transformers media, starting with the first live-action film.[1]

Not to be confused with Peter Cullen (scientist) or Peter Cullen (athlete).

Peter Cullen
Cullen at GalaxyCon Richmond in 2020
Born	Peter Claver Cullen (1941-07-28) July 28, 1941 Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Nationality	Canadian
Occupation	Voice actor
Years active	1962–present
Children	4

Early life

Cullen was born on July 28, 1941, in Montreal, Quebec, to Henry and Muriel (née McCann) Cullen. He has three siblings: Michaela, Sonny, and Larry. Cullen attended Regiopolis-Notre Dame Catholic Secondary School. He is a member of the first graduating class of the National Theatre School of Canada, which he graduated in 1963.[2] His brother, Larry Cullen, was a retired Captain in the United States Marine Corps, and helped inspire the voice of Optimus Prime.[3]

Career

1960s–1970s

In 1968, he and Joan Stuart appeared as "Giles" and "Penelope" in L'Anglaise, a recurring segment about a French-Canadian man with an English-Canadian wife, on the CBC Radio comedy series, Funny You Should Say That.

Cullen played a French-Canadian astronaut character named Commander Bi Bi Latuque alongside Ted Zeigler for the 1969 children's show, The Buddies on CFCF-TV in Montreal.[4] He honed his voice skills by working as a radio announcer, notably in his home town of Montreal on (then) MOR station CKGM doing the overnight and weekend swing shifts. From 1967–69, he was the announcer for Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.

From 1971–74, he, Zeigler and Billy Van were series regulars on The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour. In 1974, Cullen was the announcer and a series regular (with Ted Zeigler and Billy Van) on The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show. He lent his voice to a character in the album "The Story of Halloween Horror" in 1977.

As Optimus Prime

Cullen recalls auditioning for the role of the robot superhero Optimus Prime at a casting house in Burbank, California, explaining that as he read Prime's character breakdown, he saw that it was "the opportunity of the year", and heeded his brother Larry's advice: "Peter, don't be a Hollywood superhero, be a real superhero. Real superheroes don't yell and act tough; they are tough enough to be gentle, so control yourself."[3][5] Cullen later learned from his agent, Steve Tisherman, that he not only won the part of Prime, but also, to his surprise, the role of Ironhide as well, which he saw as a "home run".[3]

He has stated that Optimus is his favorite voice role, and that he based the voice of the Autobot leader on his older brother Larry, who served in Vietnam. "When he came home, I could see a change. He was quieter and he was a man and a superhero to me," says the actor. "I watched him and listened to him. I'd never had an opportunity to do a superhero, and when that came, [that voice] just came right out of me and I sounded like Optimus."[6]

Cullen putting his handprints in wet concrete at the Optimus Prime Chinese Theatre Handprint Ceremony in September 2014

He has also stated that he had no idea of Prime's popularity until the character's controversial death in the 1986 animated film, because the studio had never given him fan letters from children addressed to Optimus. The public backlash over Optimus's death surprised producers greatly. Children were leaving the theaters distraught because of the character's death. The writers temporarily revived the character for a single episode in Season 3 called "Dark Awakening". Initially, this was intended to be his final appearance, but after fan requests continued, "The Return of Optimus Prime", a two-part episode was produced. The original ending of "Dark Awakening" was altered in reruns to include a teaser about the return of the character, and indeed, Optimus returned once and for all to lead the Autobots for the final five episodes of the original American cartoon series.

Cullen reprised the role of Optimus Prime in the 2007 Transformers live-action film, and then in its sequels Revenge of the Fallen, Dark of the Moon, Age of Extinction, and The Last Knight, the spin-off Bumblebee film,[7] and the video games based on the film series. Cullen is contractually obligated to voice Optimus in at least one more sequel.[5]

Cullen again reprised his role as Optimus Prime in the video games Transformers: War for Cybertron, Transformers: Fall of Cybertron and Transformers: Devastation, and in the recent television series Transformers: Rescue Bots, Transformers Prime and Transformers: Robots in Disguise. His performance in the premiere season of Transformers: Prime earned him a nomination for a 2011 Daytime Emmy Award in the Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program category.

Other work

Cullen in 2011

In the 1980s and 1990s, Cullen appeared on a number of television shows. He has played Coran, Stride the Tiger Fighter, and King Alfor in the Lion Voltron series, the transforming spaceship/robot Ramrod, the heroic Commander Eagle and the villainous Nemesis in the 1980s anime series Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs, Commander James Hawkins in the Vehicle Voltron series, Eeyore in the Winnie the Pooh franchise, Original First Voice of KARR in Knight Rider, Antor and Bomba, and Gunner, in Dino-Riders, Airbourne, Nemesis Enforcer and Zandar in G.I. Joe, He played Mantor/Mantys in Coleco's 5 episode mini-series Sectaurs in 1986; Red Skull in the 1981 cartoon series of Spider-Man, Klaar and Zanzoar in Megas XLR and Mantus in The Pirates of Dark Water. He also had a voice part in the 1984 motion picture Gremlins (as a gremlin) and in the first season of the 2008 Knight Rider series, where he reprised his vocal role as KARR (from the original Knight Rider series). He also did voicework in The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible series, notably as Japheth, one of Noah's sons in the "Noah's Ark" episode, and the King of Nineveh in the "Jonah" episode. He was well known by some as the main villain Venger in the animated series of Dungeons and Dragons. He played the evil sorcerer Renwick in the lesser known series Little Wizards and played Cindarr in the short-lived series Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light.

Among many other television series and films, he has also lent his basso voice to many film trailers and television commercials, including announcing for the Toonami and You Are Here blocks on the Cartoon Network. Cullen spent some of his early professional years in Montreal as a radio announcer/DJ on CKGM; and as a character in a then-popular local television kids show. He acted the role of a French-Canadian astronaut, along with writer and his partner on the show, Ted Ziegler. Both Ziegler and Cullen were in the supporting cast of The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, as well as other network comedies of the era.

He voiced Nintendo's mascot Mario in the Donkey Kong segments on Saturday Supercade, making him the first person to ever provide a voice for the character in western media.

Cullen has done voicework on drum and bass DJ Dieselboy's 2004 album, The Dungeonmaster's Guide, and narration on the 2013 album Tetragrammaton by the Dutch extreme metal band The Monolith Deathcult. Tetragrammaton also featured Cullen on bass in "God's Among Insects."[8] Additionally, he did voicework for the unreleased Blizzard Entertainment game Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans,[9] and provided narration for the Star Wars fan film series I.M.P.S.: The Relentless.[10]

Cullen is a voice announcer on Police Story 4: First Strike in advertisements for New Line Cinema, lending his experience as an ex-cop for the Santa Monica division to the cast.[11]

Personal life

Cullen has four children: Clay,[12] Angus, Claire, Pilar and three grandchildren. He is a good friend of his longtime Transformers co-star and fellow voice actor Frank Welker.[13]

Honours

At BotCon 2010, Hasbro named Cullen as one of the first four human inductees in the Transformers Hall of Fame for his role as the voice of Optimus Prime.[14]

Filmography

Film

List of voice performances in feature films

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1976	King Kong	King Kong	[15]
1982	Heidi's Song	Gruffle
1983	Deck the Halls with Wacky Walls	Big Blue
1984	Gallavants	Antonim
	Voyage of the Rock Aliens	1359
	Gremlins	Special Vocal Effects
	Warriors of the Wind	General	1985 English dub
1985	Robotix	Additional voices
	Bigfoot and the Muscle Machines	Arthur Ravenscroft
	Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer	Various characters
1986	Voltron: Fleet of Doom
	Heathcliff: The Movie	Pop
	GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords	Pincher, Tombstone, Stones
	My Little Pony: The Movie	Grundle, Ahgg
	The Transformers: The Movie	Optimus Prime, Ironhide
1987	G.I. Joe: The Movie	Zandar, Nemesis Enforcer, Scientist
	Predator	The Predator
1988	Rockin' with Judy Jetson	Gruff, Commander Comsat, Bouncer
	Yogi and the Invasion of the Space Bears	Ranger Roubideux
1989	Vytor: The Starfire Champion	Myzor, Chief Eldor
1991	The Little Engine That Could	Pete, The Cave
1994	The Story of Christmas	Ox
1997	Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin	Eeyore
1999	Seasons of Giving		Archive sound
2000	The Tigger Movie
2001	The Book of Pooh: Stories from the Heart
	Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse
2002	A Very Merry Pooh Year
	Treasure Planet	Captain Flint
2003	Piglet's Big Movie	Eeyore
2004	Winnie the Pooh: Springtime with Roo
2005	Pooh's Heffalump Movie
	Pooh's Heffalump Halloween Movie
2007	Transformers	Optimus Prime
	Super Sleuth Christmas Movie	Eeyore
2009	Tigger and Pooh and a Musical Too
	Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen	Optimus Prime
2011	Transformers: Dark of the Moon
2014	Transformers: Age of Extinction
2017	Transformers: The Last Knight	Optimus Prime / Nemesis Prime
2018	Bumblebee	Optimus Prime

Television

List of voice performances in television shows

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1962–63	The Jetsons	Additional voices
1967–68	The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour	Announcer
1974	The Bobbie Gentry Show	Announcer
1979	Mighty Man and Yukk	Brandon Brewster / Mighty Man
1979	Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo	Additional voices
1981	The Kwicky Koala Show	Bristletooth
1981	The Smurfs	Additional voices
1981	Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends	Dr. Bruce Banner / Hulk, Mysterio, Red Skull	2 episodes
1982	The Scooby & Scrappy-Doo/Puppy Hour	Lucky
1982	Spider-Man	Red Skull, Stuntman, Jack Riven
1982	Meatballs & Spaghetti	Additional voices
1982	Pac-Man	Sour Puss
1982	The Little Rascals	Officer Ed, Pete the Pup
1982	Knight Rider	K.A.R.R.	1st voice; Episode: "Trust Doesn't Rust"
1983	Monchhichis	Shreeker, Snitchitt, Gonker
1983	The Puppy's Further Adventures	Lucky
1983	The Biskitts	Dog Foot, Fang, Scratch
1983	Saturday Supercade	Mario
1983	The Dukes	Additional voices
1983–85	Mister T	Additional Voices
1983–85	Dungeons & Dragons	Venger
1984	Dragon's Lair	Bertram
1984	Heathcliff and the Catillac Cats	Additional voices
1984	Snorks	Additional voices
1984–86	Rainbow Brite	Murky Dismal
1984–85	Alvin and the Chipmunks	Additional voices
1984–87	The Transformers	Optimus Prime, Ironhide, Streetwise, Blowpipe, Slugslinger
1984	Voltron: Defender of the Universe	Coran, King Alfor, Narrator
1985	The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo	Maldor the Malevolent
1985	Challenge of the GoBots	Spoiler, Tank, Pincher
1985	The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians	Felix Faust	Episode: "Brainchild/The Case of the Stolen Super Powers"
1985–86	G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero	Airborne, Ramar, Zandar
1986	MoonDreamers	Igon, Various characters	Episode: "Zodies on the Loose"
1986	Rambo: The Force of Freedom	Sergeant Havoc
1986	Muppet Babies	Sor-Elbow, Smoggy the Bear, Football Bear	Episode: "Fozzie's Family Tree"
1986	Ghostbusters	Eddie Spenser Jr., Eddie Spenser Sr., Haunter, Floatzart
1986	Pound Puppies	Captain Slaughter	4 episodes
1986	The New Adventures of Jonny Quest	Patch	Episode: "Peril of the Reptilian"
1986	Foofur	Baby the Rat, Vinnie the Cat
1986	My Little Pony	Captain Crabnasty	Episode: "Fugitive Flowers"
1987–88	BraveStarr	Dr. Whiston, Dr. Watson, Hack
1987–88	DuckTales	Admiral Grimitz, Bankjob Beagle, Mad Dog McGirk, Lessdred
1987	The Little Wizards	Renwick, various characters
1987	The Real Ghostbusters	Doctor Destructo, Police Officer	Episode: "Captain Steel Saves the Day"
1987	Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light	Cindarr
1987–89	Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs	Commander Eagle, Narrator, Nemesis
1988	Dino-Riders	Gunner, Antor, Bomba	Episode: "Toro Toro Torosaurus"
1988–89	The New Yogi Bear Show	Ranger Roubideux
1988	The Wonderful World of Disney	The Sorcerer	Episode: "Mickey's 60th Birthday"
1988–91	The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh	Eeyore
1988–90	Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears	Kerwin the Conqueror, Gritty
1988–89	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles	Smash, Mugger, Napoleon
1989	Rude Dog and the Dweebs	Herman, Winston
1989–90	Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers	Monterey Jack, additional voices
1990	TaleSpin	Additional voices	Episode: "It Came from Beneath the Sea Duck"
1990–93	Tom & Jerry Kids	Additional voices
1990–91	Widget the World Watcher	Bob the Poacher, Rooney Kangaroo, Gdunu
1991–93	The Pirates of Dark Water	Mantus
1993	Bonkers	Abominable Snowman, Mackey McSlime
1994	Hardball	Fox Announcer	Episode: "Lee's Bad, Bad Day"
1996	Boo to You Too! Winnie the Pooh	Eeyore
1998–present	The Magical World of Walt Disney
2001–02	House of Mouse
2001–03	The Book of Pooh
2004–05	Megas XLR	Zanzoar, Klaar
2005–06	IGPX: Immortal Grand Prix	Narrator
2007–10	My Friends Tigger & Pooh	Eeyore
2009	Knight Rider	K.A.R.R.	Episode: "Knight in King's Pawn"
2009	Bizarre Dinosaurs	Narrator
2010–13	Transformers: Prime	Optimus Prime, Vehicon
2012–16	Transformers: Rescue Bots	Optimus Prime
2014	2014 Kids' Choice Awards
2015–2017	Transformers: Robots in Disguise
2017	Doc McStuffins	Eeyore	Episode: "Into the Hundred Acre Wood"
2017–2018	Transformers: Titans Return	Optimus Prime
2018	The Toys That Made Us	Himself Optimus Prime
	Transformers: Power of the Primes	Optimus Prime
2019	Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles	Yōkai Councillor #1	Episode: "End Game"

Video games

List of voice performances in video games

Year	Title	Voice role
2003	Piglet's Big Game	Eeyore
2007	Transformers: The Game	Optimus Prime
	Transformers Autobots
2009	Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
	Transformers Revenge of the Fallen: Autobots
2010	Transformers: War for Cybertron
2011	Transformers: Dark of the Moon
2012	Transformers: Fall of Cybertron
	Transformers: Prime – The Game
2014	Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark
2015	Transformers: Devastation
2016	Transformers: Earth Wars
2019	Crystal Crisis	Narrator

Live-action

List of acting performances in television shows

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1967	The Buddies	Commander Bi Bi Latuque
1969	Comedy Cafe		Unknown episodes
1970–71	Zut!		Unknown episodes
1970	Prologue	Allen
1971–74	The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour	Himself, various characters	12 episodes
1974	The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show	Himself	Unknown episodes
1974	The Sonny Comedy Revue	Himself, various characters
1975	Down Home Country	Luke Warm	1 episode
1976	The Wolfman Jack Show	Unknown role
1984	Three's a Crowd	Sports Announcer, Airline Captain	2 episodes
1991	In Living Color	Blond long hair guy	Episode: "Dickie Peterson: Cherub of Justice"

Theme park rides

List of voice performances in theme park rides

Year	Title	Voice role	Notes
2003	The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh	Eeyore
2011	Transformers: The Ride 3D	Optimus Prime

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Film/TV Show	Result
2010	Golden Raspberry Awards	Worst Screen Combo	Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen	Nominated
2011	Daytime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program	Transformers Prime	Nominated
2012	Golden Raspberry Awards	Worst Screen Ensemble	Transformers: Dark of the Moon	Nominated

References

1. Gilchrist, Todd (June 8, 2007). "Exclusive: Peter Cullen Interview". IGN. Archived from the original on March 11, 2012.
2. All Our Alumni Archived 2012-05-12 at the Wayback Machine, National Theatre School of Canada, ent-nts.ca; accessed August 18, 2015.
3. Hidalgo, Pablo. Transformers Vault: The Complete Transformers Universe Showcasing Rare Collectibles and Memorabilia, Abrams, 2011, Foreword by Peter Cullen, p. 7
4. "The Buddies". 4 January 2011.
5. Lee, Chris (Spring 2014). "An Optimal Voice for Optimus". Hero Complex, Los Angeles Times. p. 22
6. Nguyen, Hanh. "Prime Time: Cullen's 'Transformers' Resurrection", Zap2It, 7 November 2006.
7. Optimus Prime Returning for the Bumblebee Spinoff Movie – Screen Rant
8. Review of Tetragrammaton by The Monolith Deathcult, Metal-fi.com
9. Blizzard Entertainment, Coming Soon magazine
10. "IMPS Chapter One FAQ". Impstherelentless.com. Retrieved 2014-01-18.
11. Handout. "Police Story 4: First Strike". OrlandoSentinel.com. Retrieved 2017-03-31.
12. https://screenrant.com/transformers-5-michael-bay-peter-cullen-optimus-prime/amp/
13. "Frank Welker". Behind The Voice Actors.
14. "TRANSFORMERS Hall of Fame Peter Cullen" (video). Hasbro. Retrieved January 18, 2014.
15. "Peter Cullen". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved 2014-01-18.

External links

• Peter Cullen on IMDb
• Peter Cullen at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• Peter Cullen at AllMovie

Preceded by None	Voice of Optimus Prime 1984–1988 Original series and animated film	Succeeded by Neil Kaplan 2001–2002 Robots in Disguise
Preceded by Garry Chalk 2002–2006 Unicron Trilogy	Voice of Optimus Prime 2007 Video game and live-action film	Succeeded by David Kaye 2007–2009 Animated
Preceded by David Kaye 2007–2009 Animated	Voice of Optimus Prime 2009 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen	Succeeded by none
Preceded by none	Voice of Optimus Prime 2010–2013 Transformers: Prime	Succeeded by none
Preceded by none	Voice of Optimus Prime 2011 Transformers: Dark of the Moon	Succeeded by none
Preceded by none	Voice of Optimus Prime 2012–2016 Transformers: Rescue Bots	Succeeded by none
Preceded by none	Voice of Optimus Prime 2014 Transformers: Age of Extinction	Succeeded by none
Preceded by none	Voice of Optimus Prime 2015–2017 Transformers: Robots in Disguise	Succeeded by none
Preceded by none	Voice of Optimus Prime 2017 Transformers: The Last Knight	Succeeded by none
Preceded by Screen Junkies 2016 Transformers: Combiner Wars	Voice of Optimus Prime 2017–2018 Transformers: Titans Return	Succeeded by none
Preceded by none	Voice of Optimus Prime 2018 Transformers: Power of the Primes	Succeeded by none
Preceded by none	Voice of Optimus Prime 2018 Bumblebee (film)	Succeeded by none
Preceded by None	Voice of Ironhide Original series and animated film 1984–1986	Succeeded by Michael McConnohie 2001–2002 Robots in Disguise
Preceded by None	Voice of Mario 1983–1985 Saturday Supercade	Succeeded by Lou Albano 1989–1990 Super Mario Brothers Super Show
Preceded by None	Voice of KARR 1982 Knight Rider episode "Trust Doesn't Rust"	Succeeded by Paul Frees 1984 Knight Rider episode "K.I.T.T. vs. K.A.R.R."
Preceded by Paul Frees 1984 Knight Rider episode "K.I.T.T. vs. K.A.R.R."	Voice of KARR 2009 Knight Rider episode "Knight to King's Pawn"	Succeeded by None