{"id":186017,"date":"2026-08-27T22:56:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T22:56:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/186017\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T22:56:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T22:56:22","slug":"peter-cullen-montreal-born-actor-who-lent-his-voice-to-optimus-prime-in-transformers-dies-at-85","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/186017\/","title":{"rendered":"Peter Cullen, Montreal-born actor who lent his voice to Optimus Prime in Transformers, dies at 85"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a style=\"display:block\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/resizer\/v2\/PYY2IULTVZPXHKGQY5PPHUWFKA.jpg?auth=6566c9ee8a390d83742adbdca4aefbb69c7db2f04159bad6f7bc5a1e4e9ee3ee&amp;width=600&amp;height=400&amp;quality=80&amp;smart=true\" aria-haspopup=\"true\" data-photo-viewer-index=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"figcap-text\">Canadian actor Peter Cullen arrives for Paramount&#8217;s &#8216;Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts&#8217; premiere in New York City, June, 2023.ANGELA WEISS\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">Peter Cullen, the Montreal-born actor who lent his calm and steady voice to Optimus Prime in the Transformers franchise, has died at age 85, his family says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">They say in a statement that Cullen died Wednesday in his Los Angeles home, surrounded by loved ones. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">Cullen originated the role of the Autobot leader in the initial Transformers animated TV series in 1984, and went on to voice the character in dozens of other shows, films, video games and theme park rides.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">They include the live action blockbuster films of the 2000s and 2010s, and 2023\u2019s Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">Cullen\u2019s credits also include voicing Christopher Robin\u2019s donkey Eeyore in TV series, films, animated shorts and video games; and more recently he played Thaddeus in the fourth season of the Prime Video series Invincible.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">His family say he was \u201cheld in the hearts\u201d of his many friends and countless fans. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">\u201cHis family asks that you honour his remarkable legacy by serving your communities and leading others with compassion, integrity, and loyalty and always remember \u2019be strong enough to be gentle,\u2019\u201d his family said in the statement shared by Cullen\u2019s agent. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">In 2018, on stage at a convention dedicated to Transformers, Cullen described how his brother Larry \u2013 a marine corps captain in the Vietnam War \u2013 told him that if he wanted to play a hero, he should be gentle, not like the Hollywood heroes who yell and scream.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Canadian actor Peter Cullen arrives for Paramount&#8217;s &#8216;Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts&#8217; premiere&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186018,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[50,3009],"class_list":["post-186017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-montreal","tag-obituary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}