Peter Cullen, the Canadian voice actor who played the hero Optimus Prime in Convoy of transformers Movies, TV shows, video games and as the grim Eeyore in dozens of Winnie the Pooh Projects, Matt. He was 85 years old.
His agent, Kevin Motley, said that Colin died on Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles Hollywood Reporter.
“He passed away peacefully, surrounded by his loving family – treasured in the hearts of his many friends and countless fans around the world,” his family said in a statement. They ask you to “honor his incredible legacy by serving your communities, leading others with compassion, integrity, and loyalty and always remembering to ‘be strong enough to be kind.’”
Montreal-born Cullen also voiced King Kong in the 1976 remake and the evil KARR (short for Knight Automated Roving Robot) in Knight Rider Series in 1982 and 2009, came with The clicking sounds are scary That came out of the monster’s mouth starring Arnold Schwarzenegger predator (1987).
Early in his career, he was a live performer and worked as a broadcaster for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour.
In 2014 NPR In the interview, Cullen noted that he initially approached playing Optimus Prime with confusion. “I auditioned like everyone else,” he said. “I was told it was a hero, and I was told it was a truck.”
The good-natured Cullen got the job and voiced the honorable leader of the Autobots for the first time in the 1984-1987 syndicated series. Transformersbased on the Hasbro toy line and produced by Marvel in collaboration with Toei Animation in Japan and then AKOM in South Korea.
Optimus dies after his duel with the tyrannical Megatron Transformers: The Movie (1986) caused an unexpected sensation, prompting producers to bring Colleen and the character back for the 1987 direct-to-video film. Transformers: Return of Optimus Prime.
When director Michael Bay brought the property to life on the big screen with the DreamWorks film transformers (2007), starring Shia LaBeouf, it didn’t make sense to rehire Colleen after two decades of his absence.
“I describe it as kind of slipping into an old pair of very comfortable shoes that you haven’t worn in a while,” he said. IGN In 2007. “I just slipped them on, and they felt as good as the last time I wore them.”
With Colleen in the role of a Peterbilt 379 semi-trailer truck, the film grossed $709.7 million worldwide – the fifth highest-grossing film of the year. He continued with the consequences Revenge the fallen (2009), which raised $836.3 million, and Darkness of the moon (2011) and Era of extinction (2014), which each received $1.1 billion.
Cullen also played Optimus The last knight (2017), bumblebee (2018) and Rise of the monsters (2023). (Chris Hemsworth voiced the character in 2014 Transformers one.)
Colin began as the voice of Eeyore in the 1988-1991 series The New Adventures of Winnie the PoohAnd he portrayed the dangling donkey in the movie Winnie The Pooh: A very happy birthday (2002) and in other programs and videos.
“I get a tremendous amount of feedback, especially from little kids, when I walk up and say (in an Eeyore voice): ‘Hi,’” Colin said. Thanks for noticing me.”
Peter Cullen voiced Optimus Prime in the 2014 film “Transformers: Age of Extinction.”
Industrial Light & Magic/Paramount Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
Peter Claver Cullen, one of four children, was born in Montreal on July 28, 1941. His parents, Henry, a longtime newspaper printing executive for the International Paper Sales Company, and Morell, were Americans.
He spent time on a relative’s farm as a child, “I remember the first summer, I could imitate the different cows, calves, chickens and dogs they had,” he recalls.
He left the National Theater School of Canada as a member of its first graduating class in 1963, studied acting under opera coach Bernard Diamant, performed Shakespeare for a summer in Stratford, Ontario, and was a member of the repertory company at the Crest Theater in Toronto for a year.
He also worked as a broadcaster for Montreal radio station CKGM and played an astronaut named Commander Bi Bi Latuque in a 1967 children’s slapstick series. Friends For Montreal television station CFCF. Then he starred Englisha CBC radio comedy series about a French-Canadian man and his English-Canadian wife (Joan Stewart). Funny you should say that.
Colin headed to Hollywood and landed The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in 1967and participated in comedy sketches for Sonny and Cher program and The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle comedy show.
In order to play Optimus Prime, Cullen said he is channeling the spirit of his older brother, Larry, a decorated US Marine who served in Vietnam from 1965 to 1968.
“When he came home, I saw a change,” he said in 2006. “He was calmer and he was a man and a superhero to me. I watched him and listened to him. I had never had the opportunity to play a superhero, and when it came, (that voice) came right out of me, and I sounded like Optimus.”
He also got to voice the Autobots’ weapons specialist Ironhide, who was based on Chill Wills, an actor in classic Hollywood Westerns.
Colleen’s performance in the first season of the 2010-13 series Transformers: Prime It earned him a Daytime Emmy nomination.
At his agent’s request, Colin auditioned predator Although he was coughing up blood after working long hours on another project, he… He pointed out In 2018. The producers initially did not want to show what the creature looked like, hoping to keep it a secret, but the actor insisted.
“If I can’t see the character, I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Colin said of his voice acting playbook. “I have to have something to relate to, to put myself in.”
“I saw this ugly face and these tentacles (moving). It reminded me of an upside-down horseshoe crab dying in the sun on the beach when I was a kid. Gross. But from that came all these crackling sounds, and the bubbles coming out and bursting.”
Returning to the animation front, Cullen also voices the cheese-obsessed mouse, Monterey Jack Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers; Coran and King Alvor in Lion Voltron series; Ramrod in the anime show Saber Rider and Star Sheriff; Commander James Hawkins V Voltron vehicle series; mario in Saturday Supercad Cartoons. And the advisor 1 in Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
He was involved with NASA and the Optimus Prime Spinoff Award, which is presented each year to young people studying space, science, technology and mathematics.
Survivors include his children, Angus, Claire, Pilar and Clay, a performer and arranger.
“phenomenon transformers “In itself it’s mind-blowing,” he said. “To be a part of it is not only historic, but it’s a part of your life that says, ‘Oh my God, I’m happy.’ I’ve done something special in my life, and I’m really grateful for that. I’m humbled by it.”
