Transformers actor Peter Cullen died from cardiac arrest at age 85, according to official death records released one week after his passing.
A death certificate cited respiratory arrest as a contributing factor, according to TMZ, with a malignant neoplasm of the lower lobe of the lungs listed as the underlying cause of death.
Cullen, who famously voiced the heroic Autobot leader Optimus Prime across television series and blockbuster movies, died peacefully at his home in the Los Angeles area while surrounded by his family.
A representative for Cullen previously confirmed the actor's passing to The Daily Mail in a statement, noting he was held in the hearts of his many friends and countless fans worldwide. The Daily Mail has reached out to his representative for further comment on the story.
His family asked supporters to honor his remarkable legacy by serving their communities and leading others with compassion, integrity, and loyalty, and to always remember his motto: "be strong enough to be gentle."
Early acting career and comedy work
Peter Claver Cullen was born in Montreal in 1941 and grew up with three siblings, including his brother Larry. He initially nurtured dreams of becoming a serious actor, studying Shakespeare as part of the first graduating class of the National Theatre School of Canada.
However, he realized he was not suited for classical stage drama. "I soon came to the conclusion that I really wasn't cut out to be the artsy guy," Cullen said in an interview with The Young Folks. "I had too much fun. I had followed the experience of grade school and high school by being the clown."
He began his career jobbing around Montreal on local film and television projects before moving into nightclub revues, where he honed his ability to perform a wide variety of accents and characters.
With his young wife and child in tow, Cullen relocated to Hollywood to work on a television show in the style of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. After the show flopped, leaving him scrambling to recover, he landed a steady announcing role on The Sonny & Cher Show.
It was his friend Jonathan Winters, the iconic comedian and star of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, who encouraged him to pursue voice work. Winters told him: "You know, Peter, what you ought to do is, you ought to do your voices. Those voices, you could make a lot of bread."
Following that advice, Cullen worked on a series of additional voice roles for animated shows such as Scooby-Doo & Scrappy-Doo and Alvin and the Chipmunks before landing his signature role.
Audition for Optimus Prime and brotherly inspiration
Cullen achieved his major professional break in 1984 when he aced an open audition for the role of Optimus Prime, the leader of the heroic Autobots on the animated series The Transformers.
The inspiration for Optimus Prime's voice came directly from his brother Larry, a Marine Corps captain who had served in Vietnam. Cullen recalled their conversation decades later when he told his brother he was auditioning for the part of a truck.
"On the advice of my brother Larry - who is a Marine Corps captain and fought in Vietnam and when he came back he had a very different outlook on life - one day when he asked where I was going I said: 'I'm going to audition for a truck,' and he laughed," Cullen remembered.
"And I said: 'No, he's a hero truck,' and then he got very serious and he said: 'Well Peter, if you're going to be a hero, be a real hero. Don't be one of those phony Hollywood sounding types that think they're tough and they're not.'"
Larry advised him to be compassionate, strong enough to be gentle, and to hold onto dignity while being strong. When Cullen stepped into the audition, his brother's voice was ringing in his ears, and Larry's steady cadence defined Optimus Prime.
Blockbuster movie success and franchise legacy
The original Transformers animated series ran from 1984 to 1987, becoming a staple of children's television and founding a multi-billion-dollar global franchise. Cullen also performed in the 1986 animated feature The Transformers: The Movie, which marked the final film role of Orson Welles.
In 2007, Cullen reached a massive global audience when director Michael Bay cast him as Optimus Prime in the live-action film adaptation. Co-starring Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, John Turturro, Tyrese Gibson, Jon Voight, and Anthony Anderson, the movie became one of the highest-grossing films of that year.
Bay directed the first five live-action pictures in the series. Two of those installments, Dark of the Moon in 2011 and Age of Extinction in 2014, grossed more than $1 billion each at the worldwide box office.
Cullen continued voicing the character after Bay departed the franchise, most recently performing in the 2023 release Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. For the 2024 animated origin film Transformers One, actor Chris Hemsworth was cast to voice a younger version of the character.
Reflecting on the commercial impact of the films, Cullen told IGN that crossing the billion-dollar mark was humbling. "It's a staggering thought, and it's humbling at the same time," Cullen said.
"There is such great talent behind the scenes as well as from the artistry to the conception to the writing to the directing to the acting," he said. "For me, I take great pride in being a part of it. It will never cease to be an area of conversation in my life, and thankfully so, because it is such a positive feeling to be able to talk about it. It's one of the highlights of my life."
Voice work as Eeyore on Winnie the Pooh
In addition to his action roles, Cullen earned the role of the gloomy donkey Eeyore on The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh in 1988, a show that aired until 1991.
He continued to voice Eeyore across numerous Disney productions, including The Tigger Movie, A Very Merry Pooh Year, Piglet's Big Movie, My Friends Tigger & Pooh, The Book of Pooh, and House of Mouse.
Speaking onstage at a TF Con event, Cullen joked that stepping into the gentle fictional world created by author A.A. Milne provided a welcome relief after working on intense action projects.
