Peter Claver Cullen (July 28, 1941 – August 26, 2026) was a Canadian and American voice actor. He voiced Optimus Prime in the original 1980s Transformers animated series, later returning to the role in Transformers media in 2007, starting with the first live-action film. He 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, the first voice of KARR in Knight Rider and the vocalizations of the title character in Predator. He also voiced Thaedus in the animated series Invincible.
Cullen was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in 2023 as part of the 2nd Children's and Family Emmy Awards.
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Early life
Peter Claver Cullen was born on July 28, 1941 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. His father Henry Laurence Cullen was from Boston, Massachusetts and his mother Muriel Margaret (née McCann) Cullen was from Providence, Rhode Island and also grew up in Yonkers and New York City. Cullen's family was of Irish descent, and he had three siblings. Cullens father was the founder and President of Canadian Overseas Paper Company, Ltd and also served as Senior Vice President and director of the International Paper Sales Company. His mother was a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. His maternal grandfather was Alfred W. McCann who was a muckraking journalist.
Cullen spent his early childhood living in Montreal. Growing up, he spent his summers on his aunts farm in New York. He said he used to imitate the animals while working there on the farm and also used to imitate his teachers at school. Cullens family later moved to Kingston, Ontario where he attended Regiopolis-Notre Dame Catholic High School. He was part of the first graduating class of the National Theatre School of Canada, completing his studies in 1963. His brother, Larry Cullen, a retired captain in the United States Marine Corps, helped inspire Cullen's later voice performance as Optimus Prime.
Career
1960–1970
Cullen played a French-Canadian astronaut character named Commander Bi Bi Latuque alongside Ted Zeigler for the 1967–1968 children's show, The Buddies on CFCF-TV in Montreal. 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 to 1969, he was the announcer for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.
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.
From 1971 to 1974, he, Zeigler, and Billy Van were series regulars on The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour. In 1974, Cullen was the announcer and a series regular alongside Zeigler and 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 recalled auditioning for the role of the robot character 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 hero, be a real hero. Real heroes don't yell and act tough; they're tough enough to be gentle, so control yourself." 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".
He stated that Optimus was 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."
Cullen 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.
He reprised the role of Optimus Prime in the 2007 Transformers live-action film, the sequels Revenge of the Fallen, Dark of the Moon, Age of Extinction and The Last Knight, Bumblebee and Rise of the Beasts and the video games based on the film series. Though he was only contractually obligated to voice Optimus up to The Last Knight, producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura stated in 2021 that Cullen was welcome to voice the character for as long as he wanted. His final performance as the character would be Optimus Prime: Awakening in 2026.
Other work
In the 1980s to the 1990s, Cullen appeared on a number of television shows. He had 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, the original voice of KARR in Knight Rider, Antor and Bomba, and Gunner, in Dino-Riders, Airborne, Zandar and Nemesis Enforcer in G.I. Joe. He played Mantor/Mantys in Coleco's 5 episode mini-series Sectaurs in 1986; Red Skull in Spider-Man (1981), 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 & Dragons. He played the evil sorcerer Renwick in Little Wizards and Cindarr in Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light.
Among many other television series and films, he 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 Zeigler. Both Zeigler 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 the 1983–1984 TV series Saturday Supercade, making him the first person to ever provide a voice for the character in western media.
Cullen did 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." Additionally, he did voicework for the unreleased Blizzard Entertainment game Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans, and provided narration for the Star Wars fan film series I.M.P.S.: The Relentless.
Personal life and death
Cullen had four children and three grandchildren. He was a fan and supporter of NASA, citing the Apollo 11 Moon landing in 1969 as the start of his interest.
Cullen died of cardiac arrest complicated by respiratory arrest and lung cancer at his home in Los Angeles, California, on August 26, 2026, at the age of 85. He is to be buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills on September 9. Many fans and co-stars paid tributes to Cullen.
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.
