{"id":1027610,"date":"2026-08-27T15:15:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T15:15:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1027610\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T15:15:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T15:15:19","slug":"peter-cullen-voice-of-optimus-prime-in-transformers-dies-at-85","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1027610\/","title":{"rendered":"Peter Cullen, Voice of Optimus Prime in ‘Transformers,’ Dies at 85"},"content":{"rendered":"

Peter Cullen, the actor best known for voicing Optimus Prime in the \u201cTransformers\u201d franchise, died on Wednesday. He was 85 years old.<\/p>\n

In a statement to TMZ<\/a>, Cullen\u2019s family said \u201cPeter Cullen passed away peacefully, surrounded by his loving family \u2013 and held in the hearts of his many friends and countless fans worldwide. His family asks that you honor his remarkable legacy by serving your communities and leading others with compassion, integrity, and loyalty and always remember \u2018be strong enough to be gentle.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The cause of death remains unknown as of this writing.<\/p>\n

Born in Montreal in 1941, Cullen was a prolific voice actor, but he was certainly best known for lending his voice to the leader of the Autobots in nearly every version of the franchise. Cullen first originated the role of Optimus Prime in the animated series that kicked off in 1984.<\/p>\n

\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"jason-fuchs-transformers\"\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

He went on to voice the character in several animated projects, and returned to Optimus Prime in 2007, when he voiced the character for Michael Bay\u2019s live action film. <\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of us pushed for Peter to be the voice of Optimus in the movie because he was iconic and would be the connection to the classic animated series,\u201d producer Don Murphy told TheWrap. \u201cHe was incredible. All of his voice work, not only \u2018Transformers,\u2019 will always be the stuff of legend. A great man.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cullen\u2019s final appearance as Optimus Prime came in 2024, when he did an episode of Fox\u2019s competition series \u201cThe Masked Singer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one defines the \u2018Transformers\u2019 franchise more than Peter himself,\u201d FJ DeSanto, showrunner of \u201cTransformers: War for Cybertron,\u201d told TheWrap. \u201cHis talent has unified multiple generations into loving not just Optimus Prime, but Peter himself.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a wonderful human being who understood the responsibility he had to millions of fans and gave it his all in every performance. His spark will live on forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Transformers\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

Of course, Cullen did far more than just \u201cTransformers.\u201d He also was the voice of The Predator in \u201cPredator,\u201d Eeyore in several \u201cWinnie the Pooh\u201d projects, Thaedus in \u201cInvincible\u201d and more.<\/p>\n

Deep cut Disney fans will also recognize Cullen as the voice of Captain Flint in \u201cTreasure Planet,\u201d various voices in the original \u201cDuckTales\u201d and Monterey Jack in \u201cChip \u2018n Dale: Rescue Rangers.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2023, Cullen was honored by the\u00a0National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) with a Lifetime Achievement award at the 2nd Annual Children\u2019s & Family Emmy Awards. In response to the honor, Cullen joked<\/a> at the time that they may not have had \u201cthe right Cullen.\u201d<\/p>\n

As TheWrap exclusively reported back in June, a new \u201cTransformers\u201d script is in the works for Paramount and Hasbro, penned by \u201cIt: Welcome to Derry\u201d writer Jason Fuchs. The untitled new movie will continue the story after 2023\u2019s \u201cTransformers: Rise of the Beasts,\u201d where Anthony Ramos\u2019 character Noah Diaz was offered a job with G.I. Joe in the film\u2019s post-credit scene.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear as of this writing if and how the film will proceed without Cullen as Optimus Prime.<\/p>\n

\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Luke\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Peter Cullen, the actor best known for voicing Optimus Prime in the \u201cTransformers\u201d franchise, died on Wednesday. He…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1027611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[28],"tags":[171,53,411007,190038,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-1027610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-peter-cullen","tag-transformers","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117168135351539642","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1027610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1027610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1027610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1027611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1027610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1027610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1027610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}