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Canadian actor Peter Cullen, who voiced Transformers' Optimus Prime, has passed away at the age of 85.
A prolific voice actor for several decades, Cullen's career started in the 1960s, and he supplied his vocal talents to a wide range of productions over the years, including Spider-Man, Knight Rider, Go-Bots, Dungeons & Dragons, Voltron: Defender of the Universe, BraveStarr, Visionaries, Dino-Riders, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Pirates of Dark Water and Winnie the Pooh.
Cullen was notably the first person to provide the voice of Mario in the West; he did so during the Donkey Kong segments on the 1983–1984 TV series Saturday Supercade.
However, despite his utterly incredible work rate, it is Optimus Prime that Cullen will forever be associated with.
From the moment the first series of the cartoon was broadcast in 1984, his authoritative tone (based on that of his brother, Vietnam veteran Larry Cullen) immediately proved a hit with kids all over the world, and when the character was killed off in the 1986 movie, it traumatised an entire generation (so much so that the film's 40th anniversary re-release is being officially billed as "The Apology Tour").
Cullen said his approach to the character was shaped by the man who inspired him: his brother. He recalls him saying:
"Peter, don't be a Hollywood hero, be a real hero. Real heroes don't yell and act tough; they're tough enough to be gentle, so control yourself."
Despite Prime's passing, Cullen would revisit the role multiple times during the rest of his life, including in TV shows such as Transformers: Prime and Transformers: Robots in Disguise, live-action movies (he played Prime in all seven Hollywood films) and video games, including Transformers: War for Cybertron, Transformers: Fall of Cybertron and Transformers: Devastation.
Cullen's passing will hit more than one generation particularly hard; he was one of the best to ever do it, and the thoughts of everyone here at Time Extension go out to his family and friends.
Til all are one.