Prolific voice actor, Peter Cullen passed away at the age of 85 yesterday on August 26, 2026. His loss is felt not just in the Transformers fan community, but across the many other shows and movies through which he touched so many lives.
To us, though, in the Transformers fandom, we have lost a father figure. In some cases, Peter Cullen was the only father figure some had growing up. Tyrese Gibson once told him on stage, “You were the only male voice I heard in my house growing up”.

He was, and will always be important to those of us who grew up hearing him do not just Optimus Prime, but Eeyore on Winnie The Pooh and so many other cartoons. His biggest role, though, was Optimus Prime, which he voiced through five seasons of the original Transformers cartoon from Sunbow, then he returned to the role in 2007 for the Michael Bay movies, which he continuously voiced the leader of the Autobots through seven feature films as well as their tie-in video games. He also voiced Optimus Prime in the Aligned continuity series Transformers Prime and Transformers Rescue Bots.

We were fortunate to have him as long as we did and he will be sorely missed. As we approach the re-release of 1986’s The Transformers: The Movie, I can’t help but think that seeing this film again will be more poignant than it ever has been before.

Goodbye, Prime.