From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Peter Cullen, born in Montreal (Canada) is a member of the first graduating class of the National Theatre School of Canada, is a voice actor who is best known for providing the voices for Optimus Prime, Ironhide and Slugslinger in Transformers, The Narrator in both US Voltron Series, Eeyore in Winnie-the-Pooh, KARR in Knight Rider, Antor and Bomba in Dino-Riders, Mantus in "The Pirates of Dark Water". He also appeared in Gremlins where he did the voice of one of the gremlins. In the 1980s and the 1990s, Cullen appeared on other shows, his credits including My Little Pony, Filmation's Ghostbusters, The Smurfs, Dungeons & Dragons, The Snorks, The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo, Tom and Jerry Kids Show, DuckTales, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,The Challenge of the GoBots, Rude Dog and the Dweebs, Rainbow Brite, The Biskitts, Robotix, Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs, Voltron: Defender of the Universe, and The Jetsons.

Among many other television shows and movies, he has also lent his basso voice to many movie trailers and television commercials, including announcing for Toonami on the Cartoon Network. Peter Cullen spent some of his early professional years in Montreal as a radio announcer/DJ on (now defunct) CKGM; and as a character in a then popular local television kids show. He acted the role of a French-Canadian astronaut, along with his partner on the show and writer, Ted Ziegler. Both Ziegler and Cullen were spotted in the credits and doing small cameo walk-ons in various comedic roles on the Sonny and Cher show, and other network comedies of the era.

He also voiced Nintendo's mascot Mario in the Donkey Kong segments on Saturday Supercade, making him the first person to ever provide a voice for the character.

Cullen has also recently done voicework on drum and bass dj Dieselboy's last two studio mix albums, Project Human, and The Dungeonmaster's Guide. He also does voice work for Blizzard Entertainment, and provided narration for the Star Wars fan film IMPS The Relentless.

Cullen will reprise his role of Optimus Prime in the 2007 Transformers movie [1]. Fans of the Transformers universe have responded to this in an overwhelmingly positive way.

He has stated that of all the voices he has done, Optimus Prime is his favorite. In interviews, he has said that he had no idea of Optimus Prime's popularity until the character's death in the film, as the studio had never given him fan letters from children addressed to Prime.

Cullen has three children: Clay, Claire, and Pilar E. Cullen.

• Peter Cullen at the Voice Chasers Database
• Peter Cullen at the Internet Movie Database
• Peter Cullen on Knight Rider Online
• Peter Cullen on www.aboutheroes