Peter Cullen’s deep, steady baritone gave voice to Optimus Prime across four decades of Transformers cartoons, films, and video games. He died last Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles, passing peacefully and surrounded by his family and loved ones.
For an entire generation of genre fans, Cullen’s voice was the one we thought of when we heard the phrase, “Transformers: Roll out!” He was the voice of Optimus Prime in the original 1984 animated series and, aside from a brief gap, never really left the role — carrying it through Michael Bay’s live-action film franchise starting in 2007, through Bumblebee and Rise of the Beasts, through modern animated series, and into countless video games. He was also the voice of the weapons specialist Ironhide, a character he built from the classic Western-movie voice of actor Chill Wills.
Cullen has said he found Optimus Prime’s voice by channeling his older brother Larry, a Vietnam Marine veteran. He described watching Larry return home changed — quieter, steadier — and drawing on that when the role came his way. It’s fitting, then, that his family’s statement asked fans to honor his legacy by “serving your communities and leading others with compassion, integrity, and loyalty,” closing with the phrase Larry once gave him: “be strong enough to be gentle.”
That magical baritone of his gave life not only to Optimus Prime, but a bewildering array of other characters. Cullen voiced Eeyore in dozens of Winnie the Pooh productions, Monterey Jack in Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers, and the villainous K.A.R.R. on Knight Rider. He supplied the guttural clicks and growls of the creature in 1987’s Predator, and even voiced King Kong in the 1976 Dino Delaurentis remake.
Now that was a big role.
More recently, he brought his voice to Thaedus in the animated series Invincible, introducing his work to a new generation of viewers who may not have known his name but instantly recognized the voice.
Born in Montreal in 1941, Cullen trained at the National Theatre School before building one of the most prolific careers in voice acting, with credits stretching across television, film, and games for well over fifty years. His performance in the first season of Transformers: Prime earned him a Daytime Emmy nomination. In 2023 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Children’s and Family Emmy Awards.
Cullen’s passing comes in the same week the genre and entertainment world has already said goodbye to Tim Curry and Dolly Parton — a hard stretch for anyone who grew up on the stories, songs, and heroes these performers gave us.
Roll out, Optimus. Thank you for teaching us what a hero sounds like.
