UPDATE: Hasbro has revealed Cullen’s final performance as Optimus Prime is in “Optimus Prime: Awakening,” a 12-minute animated short playing after the 40th anniversary screenings.
Peter Cullen, the voice of Optimus Prime for more than 40 years, has died at the age of 85.
Cullen died Wednesday, August 26, at his home in Los Angeles. TMZ first reported the death, and his agent, Kevin Motley, confirmed it to The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline. No cause of death was given.
He died in the 40th anniversary year of The Transformers: The Movie, the 1986 film that killed Optimus Prime on screen, and three weeks before Hasbro brings that movie back to theaters..
In a statement, Cullen’s family said he passed away peacefully, surrounded by his loved ones, and asked fans to honor his legacy by serving their communities and leading with compassion, integrity and loyalty — and to always remember to “be strong enough to be gentle.”
A post on Cullen’s official Instagram account acknowledged “the passing of the legendary Peter Cullen” and said what he gave fans across four decades went far beyond an iconic performance — that his kindness, humility, compassion and wisdom reached further than any character he played.
“Your voice may have fallen silent, but your legacy never will,” the post concludes. “Rest in peace, Peter Cullen. Till all are one.”
“Be Strong Enough To Be Gentle”: Optimus Prime Was Peter Cullen’s Brother
When he read the character description in 1984 — a heroic leader who turned into a red semi — he thought of his older brother Larry, a U.S. Marine who served in Vietnam from 1965 to 1968 and came home quieter and steadier than he left.
Cullen said Larry told him before the audition not to play a Hollywood hero, but to be a real one: strong enough to be gentle.
“He was my hero, and he certainly was the mainstay behind the character,” Cullen said.
He voiced Optimus Prime in every version that mattered: all four seasons of the original 1984 series, The Transformers: The Movie in 1986, Transformers: Prime from 2010 to 2013 (which earned him a Daytime Emmy nomination), a stack of video games, and all seven live-action films — the five Bay-era movies plus Bumblebee and 2023’s Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, his final turn as the character. He also voiced Ironhide in the original series, a performance he based on Western character actor Chill Wills.
He was part of the inaugural Transformers Hall of Fame class in 2010, and the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences gave him a lifetime achievement award in December 2023.
Paramount has more Transformers on the way — the studio confirmed as much at CinemaCon, and a Rise of the Beasts follow-up is in the works. It will be the first live-action Transformers movie that has to figure out what Optimus Prime sounds like without him.
More Than 200 Credits: Eeyore, King Kong, KARR And The Predator
Optimus Prime was the role, but it was never the whole career. Cullen racked up more than 200 credits across six decades.
Born in Montreal, he trained at the National Theatre School of Canada and worked in radio before landing as the announcer on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in the late 1960s.
He roared for King Kong in the 1976 remake. He was KARR, the evil mirror of KITT, on Knight Rider. He created the clicking sounds that came out of the Predator’s mouth in 1987.
For Disney, he was Eeyore for decades, starting with The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh in 1988, and Monterey Jack on Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers. He was all over the 1980s Saturday morning lineup — The Smurfs, The Jetsons, G.I. Joe, Voltron — and more recently turned up on Invincible.
He was also a convention regular known for getting choked up meeting fans. He liked to tell the story of fathers bringing their sons to his table, and the dads being the ones who cried.
Cullen’s death comes a day after Tim Curry’s, in a week that also lost Dolly Parton.
Peter Claver Cullen was born July 28, 1941, in Montreal. He is survived by his four children, Angus, Claire, Pilar and Clay.
