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| Peter Cullen at the SacAnime 2015 Winter, Sacramento, California, January 3, 2015. Photo by Jake Gould. |
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| Peter Cullen
with Optimus Prime |
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Forecourt Ceremony held on Tuesday, September 30, 2014
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Born: July 28, 1941, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Age at the time of the ceremony: 73 |
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At last — a Forecourt honoree who can bark like a dog! Peter Cullen had had an incredibly long career as a cartoon voice over actor, bringing his fun sense of humor to not only the Transformers franchise, but to Winne the Pooh, and many others.
Raised in a Catholic household, Peter has three siblings, Michaela, Sonny and Larry. He attended the Regiopolis-Notre Dame Catholic Secondary School in Kingston, Ontario, and was in the first graduating class of the National Theatre School of Canada in Montreal, Quebec, in 1963.
By 1967, Cullenn was the announcer for 33 episodes of The Smothers Brother Comedy Hour, airing over CBS from February 1967 to February 1968. Later that year, Cullen and Joan Stuart starred in a CBC Radio comedy called Funny You Should Say That, so humor has always been an aspect of what Cullen likes to do.
Programming for children has always been a huge part of Cullen's work also. He played a French Canadian astronaut on The Buddies aired over CFCF-TV in 1967. Cullen has been invloved with so many television shows and franchises, television movies and short films, that it is impossible to detail them. But many of the shows he has done voice over work for include:
The ABC Weekend Specials, The Addams Family, The Adventures of Don Coyote and Sancho Panda, Alvin & the Chipmunks, The Biskitts, Bonkers, BraveStarr, Challenge of the GoBots, Chip 'n' Dale, Christmas Comes to PacLand, Deck the Halls with Wacky Walls, Dino-Riders, Dixies's Diner, Doc McStuffins, Dragon's Lair, DuckTales, The Dukes and Dungeons and Dragons.
Fantastic Max, The Flintstone Kids, Foofur, Galtar and the Golden Lance, G. I. Joe, Goldie Gold and Action Jack, The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible, Gummi Bears, Hardball, Hägar the Horrible, Heathcliff & the Catillac Cats, House of Mouse, IGPX: Immortal Grand Prix, In Living Color, The Jetsons and Jonny Quest.
Knight Rider, The Kwicky Koala Show, The Little Engine That Could, The Little Rascals, The Little Wizard, Meatballs and Spaghetti, Megas XLR, Mickey's 60th Birthday, Monchhichis, Moon Dreamers, Motorcity, Muppet Babies, My Little Pony and The New Yogi Bear Show.
The Original Ghostbusters, Pac-Man, The Plastic Man Comedy / Adventure Show, Pink Panther and Sons, The Pirates of Dark Water, Places of Mystery, Pound Puppies, The Puppy's Further Adventures, Rainbow Bright, Rambo, Robo Force: The Revenge of Nazgar, Robotix, Rude Dog and the Dweebs, Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs, Saturday Supercade and The Savage Dragon.
Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo, Sectaurs, The Smurfs, Snocks, Sonic the Hedgehog, Spider-Man, Super Duper Super Sleuths, The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians, Superman, TaleSpin, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Tom & Jerry Kids Show, The Transformers, Three's a Crowd and Trollkins.
Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light, Voltron: Defender of the Universe, Vytor: The Starfire Champion, Widget, the World Watcher, Winnie the Pooh, and The Wolfman Jack Show.
Cullen has been active in features as well. Some of his credits in that form include:
Prologue (released in January 1970) with John Robb, The Twelve Tasks of Asterix (released in November 1976) with Roger Carel, and he did the voice for the title character in the remake of King Kong (released in December 1976) with Jeff Bridges,
Cullen did the voice of Gruffle in Heidi's Song (which played the Chinese in November 1982) with Lorne Greene, he did the voice of 1359 in Voyage of the Rock Aliens (released in March 1984) with Pia Zadora, he did the voice for Mogwai in Gremlins (released in June 1984) with Zach Galligan and did voices for Rainbow Bright and the Star Stealer (released in November 1985) with Bettina Bush. He did the voice for Grundle in My Little Pony: The Movie (released in June 1986) with Danny DeVito.
When auditioning for the role of Opitums Prime for the first time, his brother Larry, a retired Captain in the United Stes Marine Coprs, told him to shade his performance in order to give it realism. Cullen did and was given the part of a lifetime. He did the voice for Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots, in The Transformers: The Movie (released in August 1986) with Orson Welles (!). As Optimus dies in this early animated version of the story, the producers were engulfed with heartflet letters from fans. There must be some way to bring the character back.
Meanwhile, Cullen provided the voice of The Predator (released in June 1987) with Arnold Schwarzenegger, and was chosen to provide the voice of Eeyore in The Tigger Movie (released in February 2000) with Jim Cummings doing the voice of Tigger. Remaining in the Disney fold, Cullens did the voice for Captain Flint in Treasure Planet (released in November 2002) with Emma Thompson.
He was asked back to do the voice of Eeyore in Winnie the Pooh: A Very Merry Pooh Year (released in November 2002) with Jim Cummings doing both Pooh and Tigger. More Eeyore films followed. He did Eeyore in Piglet's Big Movie (released in March 2003) with John Fiedler doing the voice of Piglet, and did Eeyore in Pooh's Heffalump Movie (released in February 2005) with Jim Cummings.
When Michael Bay came along to make a CGI and live action version of Transformers (released in July 2007) with Shia LeBeouf, Cullen did the voice of Optimus Prime. The movie grossed seven times what it cost to make, and so, was followed by Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (released in June 2009) with Shia LeBeouf, and Transformers: Dark of the Moon (released in June 2011).
When Transformers was turned into a GCI animated show, Cullen
did the voice of Optimus Prime for 58 episodes of Transformers Prime aired over the Hub Television Network from November 2010 to July 2013.
Transformers: Age of Extinction (which played the Chinese in June 2014) with Mark Wahlberg, was a huge, international hit. When it was released on Blu-Ray, Cullen (and Optimus Prime himself) were invited to make their imprints for the Forecourt. Only Cullen's block has been installed in the Forecourt.
Cullen continuted to voice Optimus Prime in Transformers: The Last Knight (which played the Chinese in June 2017) with Mark Wahlberg, and Bumblebee (which had its U.S. premiere at the Chinese on Sunday, December 9, 2018) with Hallee Steinfeld. |
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| TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX®, Hollywood, California. Peter Cullen / Optimus Prime Forecourt ceremony, Tuesday, September 30, 2014. Peter Cullen shows of his dirty hands after placing them in the wet cement. |
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| TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX®, Hollywood, California. Peter Cullen / Optimus Prime Forecourt ceremony, Tuesday, September 30, 2014. Optimus Prime as revealed in the Forecourt. The figure was wheeled forward on a track, and some sort of imprint was made, but it was not installed in the Forecourt. |
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