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Peter Cullen, the Canadian voice actor behind Eeyore in Winnie the Pooh and Optimus Prime in the Transformers franchise, has died.
His agent Kevin Motley confirmed to CBC News that Cullen died Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 85.
The Montreal-born actor honed his chops on the radio, first on CKGM, and later on television as the announcer for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour on CBS from 1967 to 1969.
In the 1976 remake of King Kong, Cullen was the voice of the giant ape. He also was responsible for the terrifying sounds that emerged from the monster in Predator in 1987.
Millennials may recognize Cullen’s voice from the 1988-91 series The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, where he began voicing the the donkey Eeyore. He continued to play the role in the 2002 film Winnie the Pooh: A Very Merry Pooh Year and other shows and videos.
But his biggest role was the talking truck transformer, Optimus Prime, who he played starting in the early ’80s.
The leader of the Autobots was so beloved that in 1986, there was huge fan backlash to Optimus Prime dying in a duel with the evil Megatron in The Transformers: The Movie.
Producers brought the character back to life in 1987 with The Transformers: The Return of Optimus Prime.
Although Cullen hadn’t played the character for two decades, director Michael Bay rehired him in 2007 for his science fiction action film Transformers, alongside stars Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox and Josh Duhamel.
At the Calgary Comic Expo in 2015, Cullen explained how his brother Larry inspired the voice. Larry was a U.S. Marine who had fought in battle. He had seen real action and received medals for his valour.
So when Cullen was standing in the voice booth for the first time and looking at his script, he remembered Larry said a real hero was “strong enough to be gentle.”
Cullen’s family referenced that moment today, when they announced his death in a statement.
They said Cullen will be “held in the hearts of his many friends and countless fans worldwide,” and they asked the public to “honor his remarkable legacy by serving your communities and leading others with compassion, integrity and loyalty and always remember, ‘Be strong enough to be gentle.'”
