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The autobots will roll out no more after Peter Cullen, the Canadian voice actor who lent his vocals to the robots’ leader Optimus Prime, passed away on Wednesday in Los Angeles at the age of 85.

Cullen’s agent Kevin Motley confirmed the actor’s passing to The Hollywood Reporter, saying he died in his home.

A statement from Cullen’s family said he had “died peacefully, surrounded by his loving family — and held in the hearts of his many friends and countless fans worldwide”.

His family asked his fans to “honour his remarkable legacy by serving your communities and leading others with compassion, integrity and loyalty and always remember [to] ‘be strong enough to be gentle’”.

Cullen was best known for playing the deep-voiced Optimus in the 1987 animated series and subsequent productions from the Transformers franchise. In a 2014 interview, he talked about how strange it was to audition for the role. “I auditioned like everybody else. I was told it was a hero and I was told it was a truck.”

The actor took inspiration from his brother — a Vietnam veteran who told him to play the role as “a real hero, not a Hollywood hero” — for playing the robot and would give his brother a cut of his earnings from the part.

The actor’s performance as the character earned him a Daytime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Programme in 2011, and he was honoured with a lifetime achievement award at the Children’s & Family Emmy Awards in 2023.

Another role where his heavy voice shined was in Winnie the Pooh cartoons, where Cullen played the downcast donkey Eeyore. “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,’” he once recalled.

The actor voiced King Kong in 1976, the monster in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 1987 film Predator and the evil KARR in the Knight Rider series. He had credits in multiple animated series, including Chip ’n Dale Rescue Rangers, Spider-Man, Alvin & the Chipmunks, My Little Pony and Duck Tales.

Cullen was born on July 28, 1942 to American parents in Montreal. As a kid, he spent time on a relative’s farm where he recalled spending his days imitating the many animals they had. He graduated from the National Theatre School of Canada as a member of its inaugural batch in 1963.

Cover photo: AFP