{"id":323,"date":"2026-08-27T17:55:47","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T17:55:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kcfj570am.com\/?p=323"},"modified":"2026-08-27T17:55:47","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T17:55:47","slug":"peter-cullen-voice-of-transformers-winnie-the-pooh-characters-dies-at-85","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kcfj570am.com\/?p=323","title":{"rendered":"Peter Cullen, voice of ‘Transformers,’ ‘Winnie the Pooh’ characters, dies at 85"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Peter Cullen attends The Paley Honors: A Gala Tribute To Hasbro’s Centennial at Cipriani 42nd Street on October 23, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Michael Loccisano\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Peter Cullen, a voice actor who starred as Optimus Prime in Transformers<\/em> and as Eeyore in Winnie the Pooh<\/em>, has died at the age of 85.<\/p>\n

Cullen died on Wednesday at his Los Angeles home, his agent, Kevin Motley, confirmed to ABC News on Thursday.<\/p>\n

No cause of death was given.<\/p>\n

“Peter Cullen passed away peacefully, surrounded by his loving family — and held in the hearts of his many friends and countless fans worldwide,” the family said in a statement. “His family asks that you honor his remarkable legacy by serving your communities and leading others with compassion, integrity, and loyalty and always remember ‘be strong enough to be gentle.'”<\/p>\n

Cullen had more than 200 acting credits over his decadeslong career. In addition to his roles in several Transformers<\/em> and Winnie the Pooh<\/em> movies and shows, he voiced characters in Knight Rider<\/em> and Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers<\/em> and provided vocal effects for the 1987 film Predator<\/em>, according<\/a> to IMDb.<\/p>\n

He was also the announcer on The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour<\/em> in the 1970s, which gave him his break into acting.<\/p>\n

In a 2014 interview with NPR, the Canadian-born Cullen said he first learned he had a talent for voices when he was a child, living and working on a farm.<\/p>\n

“One of the greatest memories I have is, I had a full dairy barn where I would collect milk pails with my brother, Larry,” Cullen said. “I found one day that I made a loud noise and all the cows looked up to me. … And I walked down the center of that aisle with these cows looking at me and I said, ‘This is fantastic.’ I must have been 8 years old … and I was the king of the cows.”<\/p>\n

Cullen said that his second favorite role after Optimus Prime was voicing an animal, gloomy donkey Eeyore, in Winnie the Pooh<\/em>.<\/p>\n

“I enjoyed doing Eeyore because he was simply charming,” Cullen told NPR<\/a>. “And I get an awful lot of reactions from, especially, young kids, when I go up and just say [in Eeyore’s voice], ‘Hello. Thanks for noticing me.'”<\/p>\n

He continued, “And to see their faces light up, that to me is one of the great joys.”<\/p>\n

Cullen’s gift of impersonations grew from animals to humans, which he said in a 2023 interview<\/a> launched him into a career in comedy, first in Canada and then in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

When asked for his advice for young people, Cullen said to find something that you’re good at, or something that you want to do, and stick with it.<\/p>\n

“No matter what it is, it’s like working a muscle, the more you work it, the bigger it gets,” he said. “And, if you do something you love, that’s what I tell kids, if you find something you love to do, do it, stick with it, and you’ll never work a day in your life. You love it, it’s just a holiday.”<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Peter Cullen attends The Paley Honors: A Gala Tribute To Hasbro’s Centennial at Cipriani 42nd Street on October 23, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Michael Loccisano\/Getty Images) Peter Cullen, a voice actor who starred as Optimus Prime in Transformers and as Eeyore in Winnie the Pooh, has died at the age of 85. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":870,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcfj570am.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcfj570am.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcfj570am.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcfj570am.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcfj570am.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcfj570am.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcfj570am.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcfj570am.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcfj570am.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcfj570am.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}