His family confirmed the heartbreaking news in an emotional statement, saying Cullen died peacefully surrounded by those closest to him.
“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.
Rather than simply asking people to remember his performances, Cullen’s family encouraged fans to honor his life by serving their communities and leading others with compassion, integrity and loyalty.
They ended their message with words that became inseparable from Cullen and his most famous character: “Be strong enough to be gentle.”
For millions of people who grew up watching Transformers, Cullen wasn’t simply the man providing Optimus Prime’s voice. His deep, commanding delivery helped transform the heroic Autobot leader into a symbol of courage, responsibility and compassion.
Cullen first voiced Optimus Prime in the original animated Transformers television series in 1984. His performance immediately gave the character a distinctive personality — powerful without being cruel, authoritative without being cold and courageous without losing his humanity.
When Optimus Prime was killed in the 1986 animated film The Transformers: The Movie, young fans were devastated. The reaction became so intense that the character was eventually brought back.
But Cullen’s relationship with Optimus Prime was only beginning.
More than two decades later, he returned to the role when Transformers became a live-action blockbuster franchise in 2007. Audiences who had grown up hearing Cullen in the 1980s suddenly heard that unmistakable voice booming through movie theaters again.
He continued voicing Optimus across movies, television productions, video games and other projects, introducing the character to entirely new generations.
Behind that legendary voice was an intensely personal inspiration.
When Cullen was preparing to audition for Optimus Prime, he spoke with his older brother, Larry Cullen, a U.S. Marine who had served in Vietnam.
Peter considered Larry a real-life hero.
According to Cullen, his brother encouraged him not to approach Optimus as a stereotypical Hollywood action hero. Real heroes, Larry explained, didn’t need to scream or constantly prove how tough they were.
Instead, they needed strength, control and compassion.
His advice was simple: be “strong enough to be gentle.”
Cullen carried that philosophy directly into his audition.
Instead of making Optimus Prime loud and aggressive, he gave the Autobot leader a calm, reassuring authority. Cullen later explained that elements of his brother’s personality and delivery became part of Optimus.
That decision helped create one of the most recognizable voices in animation history.
Of the countless characters Cullen performed during his long career, Optimus always occupied a special place in his heart.
“Optimus is my favorite character because it’s been so well received and it’s had such an effect on so many people,” Cullen once explained. “Because of that, I hold it closer than any other character I’ve done.”
The emotional connection worked both ways.
Fans didn’t simply enjoy Optimus Prime as an animated character. Many grew up seeing him as an example of what leadership should look like — strong but compassionate, brave but thoughtful and willing to sacrifice himself for others.
Parents who watched Cullen’s Optimus in the 1980s eventually introduced the character to their own children, allowing his voice to become part of multiple generations of childhood memories.
Optimus Prime may have been Cullen’s defining role, but it was far from his only memorable performance.
Millions of Disney fans knew him as Eeyore, the lovable, perpetually gloomy donkey from the Winnie the Pooh universe.
Cullen began voicing Eeyore in The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and continued portraying the character across numerous productions.
The contrast between his two best-known characters demonstrated his remarkable range.
Optimus was powerful, commanding and inspirational.
Eeyore was slow, weary and wonderfully pessimistic.
Yet Cullen made both instantly recognizable.
His voice could also be heard in numerous other productions, sometimes in roles audiences never realized belonged to the same performer.
He voiced the villainous artificial intelligence KARR in Knight Rider and contributed to a long list of animated television shows and films.
He even helped create one of cinema’s most frightening sounds.
Cullen provided vocal effects for the extraterrestrial creature in the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger film Predator, contributing to the distinctive clicks and other unsettling noises that became inseparable from the monster.
At one point, Cullen admitted that even he had trouble remembering exactly how many characters he had voiced.
“I don’t know how many voices I have done over the years,” he said in 2008. “I couldn’t be dead on with an answer, but it has to be about 100 different characters.”
His career ultimately stretched across decades of television, movies, animation, games and voiceover work.
But Cullen’s greatest legacy may not be measured by the number of characters he played.
It can be found in the memories attached to his voice.
For one generation, hearing Cullen instantly brings back childhood afternoons spent watching Optimus Prime lead the Autobots against the Decepticons.
For another, it is Eeyore quietly expecting everything to go wrong in the Hundred Acre Wood.
For movie fans, his work may evoke the terrifying creature sounds from Predator.
And for Transformers fans around the world, Cullen’s voice became so closely connected with Optimus Prime that separating the actor from the character became almost impossible.
His work eventually received major industry recognition, including a Daytime Emmy nomination for his performance in Transformers: Prime. He was later honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Children’s & Family Emmy Awards, celebrating decades of contributions to entertainment.
Still, the words his family chose after his death may say more about his legacy than any award ever could.
They asked fans to remember Cullen not only by watching the characters he brought to life, but by practicing compassion, integrity, loyalty and service to others.
And once again, they returned to the lesson his brother had given him all those years ago:
“Be strong enough to be gentle.”
Those few words helped Cullen shape an audition for an animated robot in 1984.
That performance became one of the defining roles of his life.
More than four decades later, the same message has become part of Peter Cullen’s farewell.
For millions who grew up hearing him, he wasn’t simply a voice actor. He was Optimus Prime. He was Eeyore. He was a familiar voice woven into childhood memories.
And although the man behind that extraordinary voice is gone, the characters and memories he created will continue speaking to generations to come.