Peter Cullen, the voice of Optimus Prime since 1984, has died at 85

Peter Cullen died on Wednesday, August 26, at his home in Los Angeles, at 85. His agent, Kevin Motley, confirmed the news to The Hollywood Reporter. For gamers, it's a decade of Transformers games that loses its voice.

Cullen voiced Optimus Prime from the 1984 animated series through Rise of the Beasts (2023), and played him controller in hand in Transformers: The Game (2007), War for Cybertron (2010), Fall of Cybertron (2012), Rise of the Dark Spark (2014) and Devastation (2015), PlatinumGames' action game. He was still recording the character's radio messages in Fortnite, in Chapter 4 Season 3.

A legacy that's hard to access

These games are no longer for sale on Steam or the PlayStation Store: Activision pulled them in December 2017, when its Hasbro license expired. His best acting work in games is now the hardest to hear.

Mario, yes, but on television

Cullen did voice Mario, in the Donkey Kong segments of Saturday Supercade (1983-1984). That was a cartoon, not a game: on the games side, Mario was long voiced by Charles Martinet. He also voiced Eeyore for Disney, up through Piglet's Big Game (2003), but not in Kingdom Hearts, where the role went to Gregg Berger.

We also owe him the Predator's clicking sounds (1987) and Thaedus in Invincible, his last credited role. His family said he passed "peacefully, surrounded by loved ones" and asked that people remember to "be strong enough to be gentle." The phrase isn't from Optimus Prime: it comes from his brother Larry, a Vietnam veteran, on whom Cullen modeled the character's voice.