“Do Not Forget What You Have Learned of Our Past, Rodimus. From Its Lessons, The Future is Forged.”
This week has brought us the loss of music and movie icons Dolly Parton and Tim Curry, but now another just as important voice has joined them. Peter Cullen, the deep, iconic voice behind Optimus Prime and a litany of other characters has died at age 85.
For parents, one of the great joys is sharing our favourite childhood shows and movies with our kids. In the age of streaming most are still available and most hold up to modern viewing. Cullen was a rare talent who transcended generations playing the same character, Optimus Prime.
For myself, Transformers was everything. They were my favourite toy, show and movie (the animated one from 1985) and Peter Cullen’s voice as Optimus Prime was the one that guided me through it all. Cullen through Optimus taught me the value of leadership, standing up for others and resilience in the face of absolute disaster. These are lessons that have served me well into adulthood.
Peter Cullen, The Man
Peter Claver Cullen was born in Montreal, Quebec, on July 28, 1941. Cullen grew up in a large family alongside three siblings.
Spanning over six decades, his extraordinary career began in Canadian radio and live-action television before expanding into a prolific voice acting legacy. After originating Optimus Prime in the 1980s animated series (a cadence he famously based on his brother Larry’s gentle strength as a Vietnam veteran), he reprised the role across blockbuster live-action feature films, television revivals, and video games for multiple generations of fans.
Cullen had roughly 216 credited acting roles and over 260 total credits listed on IMDb. His remarkable contributions to entertainment earned him a Lifetime Achievement Emmy Award in 2023, along with an induction into the Hasbro Hall of Fame.
Cullen also lent his deep vocal range to the gloomily beloved donkey Eeyore in Disney’s Winnie the Pooh, the title creature’s vocalizations in Predator, and Monterey Jack in Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers. Beyond his professional ties with close friend and frequent co-star Frank Welker (the voice of Megatron in the Transformers series), he prioritized a grounded personal life. He was a devoted father to four children and had three grandchildren.
Legacy Matters
As we parents and grown ups of a certain generation get older, it’s inevitable that we lose the voices and faces of our formative years. Dolly Parton, Tim Curry and Peter Cullen were parts of millions of child’s lives and now those children are passing the lessons that we learned from them on to our kids.
Nostalgia is a tricky thing, especially when it comes to parenting, because a lot of the things we grew up with don’t translate or seem dated to today’s kids. But the lessons and the feelings that those performers and shows gave us will never fade and can be connected to kids today through their example and applied to current media.
The Transformers: The Movie is headed back to theatres this fall to celebrate it’s 40th anniversary and I know I’ll be there to spend a last few moments with a voice that was more than entertainment, it was a friend.
Peter Cullen’s is the voice I hear in my head that says everyone deserves respect and that helping people is what a hero does. When I’m close to the breaking point it’s Cullen’s voice that tells me to keep working at it until all are one. These are invaluable assets as a parent, as a person and as a professional and I will never be able to thank him enough for giving me that.
