This is one of those pieces of news that feels like the end of a little piece of childhood. Peter Cullen, the legendary voice actor behind Optimus Prime in ‘Transformers’ and Eeyore in ‘Winnie the Pooh’, has died aged 85.
Cullen first became the voice of Optimus Prime in the original ‘Transformers’ animated series in 1984, creating a voice that would become completely inseparable from the character. He returned again and again over the following four decades, including for Michael Bay’s live-action ‘Transformers’ films beginning in 2007, ‘Bumblebee’ and ‘Transformers: Rise of the Beasts’.
It is difficult to overstate just how big ‘Transformers’ became. What began as an animated series and toy line grew into one of the biggest pop culture franchises in the world, spanning movies, television, comics, games and generations of toys. Through so much of that extraordinary journey, Cullen remained the voice at its heart.
There was something about his Optimus Prime that went beyond simply sounding powerful. Cullen famously based the voice on his older brother Larry, a Vietnam War veteran, whose advice helped inspire the idea that a real hero didn't need to shout or act tough. It was an approach that gave Optimus a sense of wisdom, kindness and authority that would help define the character for generations.
And who could forget some of those Optimus Prime lines? Cullen had this incredible ability to make even a few words feel enormous, and over the years some of them became almost as iconic as the character himself.
“Freedom is the right of all sentient beings.”
“Till all are one.”
“Fate rarely calls upon us at a moment of our choosing.”
And perhaps one of the most poignant looking back now: “There’s a thin line between being a hero and being a memory.”
They were lines about courage, freedom, unity and doing the right thing, delivered in that unmistakable voice that made generations of ‘Transformers’ fans believe every single word. Optimus Prime might have been a giant transforming robot, but Cullen gave him his humanity.
But for me, there is another Peter Cullen character that hits even closer to home: Eeyore.
I have always loved ‘Winnie the Pooh’, and Cullen began voicing our wonderfully gloomy little donkey in ‘The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh’ in 1988, continuing to voice him across television, films and other projects for years afterwards.
And that one feels particularly special because it hasn't stayed in my childhood. My three-year-old still listens to and watches the version of ‘Winnie the Pooh’ with Peter Cullen's Eeyore today. There is something quite incredible about hearing a voice you grew up with coming from the television again while your own child sits watching it.
That's perhaps the loveliest thing about the legacy Peter Cullen leaves behind. Somewhere right now there are adults who grew up hearing him tell the Autobots to roll out, sitting beside children discovering Optimus Prime for the first time. There are parents who grew up in the Hundred Acre Wood now watching their own little ones fall in love with Pooh, Piglet, Tigger and that beautifully gloomy donkey.
Peter Cullen may be gone, but his voice isn't going anywhere.
It will keep booming out of ‘Transformers’ movies and cartoons. It will keep quietly grumbling from a corner of the Hundred Acre Wood. And it will keep becoming part of the childhoods of children who weren't even born during his lifetime.
What an extraordinary legacy for one voice to leave behind.
