Peter Cullen, the Canadian voice actor who starred as the heroic Optimus Prime in a convoy of Transformers films, TV shows and video games and as the gloomy Eeyore in dozens of Winnie the Pooh projects, has died. He was 85.

Cullen died Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles, his family announced.

The Montreal-born Cullen also voiced King Kong for the 1976 remake and the evil K.A.R.R. (short for Knight Automated Roving Robot) on Knight Rider series in 1982 and 2009, and he came up with the scary clicking sounds that emerged from the mouth of the monster in the Arnold Schwarzenegger-starring Predator (1987).

Early in his career, he was a live-action performer and served as the announcer for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour.

In a 2014 NPR interview, Cullen noted that he initially approached playing Optimus Prime with puzzlement. “I auditioned like everybody else,” he said. “I was told it was a hero, and I was told it was a truck.”

The good-natured Cullen got the job and voiced the honorable leader of the Autobots for the first time on the 1984-87 syndicated series The Transformers, based on the Hasbro toy line and produced by Marvel in association with Toei Animation of Japan and then AKOM in South Korea.

Optimus’ death after a duel with the tyrannical Megatron in The Transformers: The Movie (1986) caused a huge and unexpected outcry, prompting producers to bring Cullen and the character back for the 1987 straight-to-video movie The Transformers: The Return of Optimus Prime.

When director Michael Bay resurrected the property for the big screen with DreamWorks’ Transformers (2007), starring Shia LaBeouf, it was a no-brainer to rehire Cullen after two decades away.

“I describe it as kind of slipping into an old pair of very comfortable shoes that you haven’t worn for a while,” he told IGN in 2007. “I just slipped right into them, and they felt as good as the last time I put them on.”

With Cullen as the Peterbilt 379 semi-trailer truck, the film grossed $709.7 million worldwide — the fifth-highest grossing movie of the year. He followed with the sequels Revenge of the Fallen (2009), which raked in $836.3 million, and Dark of the Moon (2011) and Age of Extinction (2014), which each raked in $1.1 billion.

Cullen also played Optimus in The Last Knight (2017), Bumblebee (2018) and Rise of the Beasts (2023). (Chris Hemsworth voiced the character in 2014’s Transformers One.)

Cullen began as the voice of Eeyore on the 1988-91 series The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and he portrayed the droopy donkey in the featureWinnie the Pooh: A Very Merry Pooh Year (2002) and on other shows and videos.

“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,’” Cullen said.

One of four children, Peter Claver Cullen was born in Montreal on July 28, 1941. His parents, Henry, a longtime newsprint executive with the International Paper Sales Co., and Muriel, were Americans.

He spent time on a relative’s farm as a kid, and “I remember the very first summer, I could imitate the cows, the calves, the chickens, the different dogs they had,” he recalled.

He left the National Theatre School of Canada as a member of its first graduating class in 1963, studied acting under operatic coach Bernard Diamant, did Shakespeare for a summer in Stratford, Ontario, and was a member of the repertory company at The Crest Theatre in Toronto for a year.

He also worked as an announcer for the Montreal radio station CKGM and played an astronaut named Commander Bi Bi Latuque on the 1967 slapstick kids series The Buddies for the Montreal TV station CFCF. He then starred in Les Anglaises, a CBC radio comedy about a French Canadian man and his English Canadian wife (Joan Stuart) for the series Funny You Should Say That.

Cullen headed to Hollywood and landed on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in 1967, and he took part in comedy sketches for the Sonny & Cher program and The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Comedy Show.

To play Optimus Prime, Cullen said he channeled the spirit of his older brother, Larry, a decorated U.S. Marine who served in Vietnam from 1965-68.

“When he came home, I could see a change. He was quieter and he was a man and a superhero to me,” he said in 2006. “I watched him and listened to him. I’d never had an opportunity to do a superhero, and when that came, [that voice] just came right out of me, and I sounded like Optimus.”

He also got to voice Autobots weapons specialist Ironhide, which he based on Chill Wills, an actor in classic Hollywood Westerns.

Cullen’s performance in the first season of the 2010-13 series Transformers: Prime earned him a Daytime Emmy nomination.

At the urging of his agent, Cullen auditioned for Predator even though he was coughing up blood after working long hours on another project, he recalled in 2018. Producers initially didn’t want to show him what the creature looked like, hoping to keep that a secret, but the actor insisted.

“If I can’t see the character, I don’t know what I’m gonna do. I have to have something to relate to, to put myself inside of,” Cullen said of his voice-acting playbook.

“I saw this ugly, ugly face and these tentacles [moving around]. It reminded me of an upside-down horseshoe crab dying in the sun on a beach when I was a kid. Nasty. But from that was coming all these crackling sounds, bubbles that were coming out and bursting.”

Back on the animation front, Cullen also voiced the cheese-obsessed mouse Monterey Jack on Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers; Coran and King Alfor in the Lion Voltron series; Ramrod in the anime show Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs; Commander James Hawkins in the Vehicle Voltron series; Mario in Saturday Supercade cartoons; and Councillor 1 in Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

He was involved with NASA and the Optimus Prime Spinoff Award, which is presented each year to youngsters studying space, science, technology and math.

Survivors include his children, Angus, Claire, Pilar and Clay, a stunt performer and coordinator.

“The phenomenon of Transformers itself is mind-shaking,” he said. “Being a part of it is not only historical, it’s a part of your life that says, ‘Gee, I’m glad.’ I did something in my life that stood out, and I’m really grateful for that. Humbled by it.”

The Nanny McPhee stage musical with a book by Emma Thompson, first revealed by Deadline back in 2024, will open in London in summer 2027.

Based on the Universal Pictures/Working Title Nanny McPhee films, and the Nurse Matilda character by Christianna Brand and Edward Ardizzone that inspired them, the new musical will take the tale to the stage for the first time.

The creative team behind the production will feature actor and writer Thompson, music by singer-songwriter Gary Clark (frontman of the band Danny Wilson who wrote the music for Sing Street on stage and film), with original lyrics by Thompson and Clark.

‘I’ve lived with Nanny McPhee for so long that to see her finally tread the boards is supremely exciting,” said Thompson, who starred in the 2005 and 2010 McPhee films. “Theatre feels like her natural home – magic, music, mischief and a good dollop of danger can all happen right in front of you. Working with Gary Clark to create the musical heart that beats through the story has been an unforgettable journey of a lifetime. And I am thrilled and so proud that the brilliant Katy Rudd will be bringing it all to life with her inimitable witty wonderment. I can’t wait to introduce the all-new Nanny McPhee to audiences next summer.”

Nanny McPhee will be directed by Katy Rudd (Ballet Shoes and The Ocean at the End of the Lane), with set and costume designs by the Tony and Olivier Award-winning Rob Howell (Matilda the Musical) and choreography by Ellen Kane, winner of the 2023 World Choreography Award for Best Motion Picture Choreography for Matilda the Musical.

The musical’s synopsis: “When the mysterious figure of Nanny McPhee arrives at the Browns’ door she discovers a household in chaos; anarchic children who have driven away every Nanny before her, a desperate father, a donkey that is out of control, and a baby who will stop at nothing. Armed with her strange knobbly stick, exceedingly unorthodox methods and quite a lot of magic, Nanny McPhee begins to restore harmony. And as it turns out, the children aren’t the only family members who have lessons to learn.”

Also part of the creative team are orchestrations by Simon Hale, music supervision by Nigel Lilley, and music arrangements by Simon Hale and Nigel Lilley. Lighting is by Howard Hudson, sound designs by Ian Dickinson for Autograph, illusions by Chris Fisher, puppetry by Samuel Wyer, and projections by Andrzej Goulding.

Nanny McPhee is presented by Working Title Films and Universal Theatrical Group. The show is produced by Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Lindsay Doran, Emma Thompson, Paul Warwick Griffin, Gareth Hewitt Williams and Rebecca Quigley for Working Title Films.

EXCLUSIVE: Rosie O’Donnell, a longtime autism advocate, has joined the producing team of Indigo, a new original musical about an unconventional family as seen through the eyes of a non-speaking autistic teenager.

O’Donnell, who spoke candidly in her recent Off Broadway show Common Knowledge about parenting a a child on the autism spectrum, decided to join the Indigo team after seeing the show’s premiere last year at the cided to join the production in reaction to her experience of the UK premiere of the show, which took place at the Curve Theatre in Leicester, UK.

Producers led by Lorenzo Thione, Joey Monda, and Jay Kuo of Sing Out, Louise! Productions, who announced O’Donnell’s involvement today, plan to move the production to London in late 2027, although venue, dates and cast have not yet been set.

“Indigo is the most beautiful and authentic depiction of autism in a kid as I have ever seen,” O’Donnell said in a statement. “This story needs to be seen by the world.”

Added producer Thione, “Rosie has spent years speaking candidly and with humor about neurodivergence to millions of people, in her own voice and on her own platforms. Now she is bringing that voice and the community she has built to Indigo and inviting them to experience this incredible story for themselves. We couldn’t be prouder of welcoming Rosie to the Indigo family.”

With a book by Kait Kerrigan, music & lyrics by Scott Evan Davis and direction by Catie Davis, Indigo tells the stories of three generations of women who “navigate a life of mistakes, broken promises, and ultimately, their need to reach one another.”

The full synopsis: “Elaine is starting to forget. Beverly wishes she wouldn’t remember. Emma just wants her family back…Indigo is an emotional exploration of the true meaning of family in a complex, neurodiverse, and not always easy world. Three generations of women navigate a life of mistakes, broken promises, and ultimately, their need to reach one another. Emma’s internal experience, in a world awash with color, allows the audience to experience life from her perspective, even while she remains silent to the outside world, as a non-speaking neurodivergent teen. A celebration of empathy, family bonds, and embracing new perspectives, Indigo feels like a story that’s familiar and relevant to each and every one of us.”

In addition to autism, the musical addresses such topics as Alzheimer’s, addiction, loss, “and the unbreakable ties of family.” The musical was conceived by Jay Kuo, Lorenzo Thione & Scott Evan Davis.

Composer and lyricist Davis has a longstanding personal connection to the autism community, as an educator and board member of Epic Players, a pre-eminent US neurodivergent theater company. Indigo has engaged neurodivergent artists throughout its creative process, both on and off the stage. In Leicester, as in every iteration prior, the actors who have played the leading role of Emma are themselves neurodivergent.

“When we first conceived Indigo,” said Davis, “our goal was never to explain autism to an audience. It was to tell the story of a kid who is not a victim, who is not broken and doesn’t need to be changed. It was to invite an audience in to feel what Emma feels and to see the world from her eyes.

“Rosie has spent years speaking up for neurodivergent kids to be seen for who they really are. Having her on our team is a reaffirmation of our goal and commitment.”

In addition to using her TikTok platform to address the subject of autism to her roughly 3 million followers, O’Donnell produced the 2025 documentary Unleashing Hope: The Power of Service Dogs for Children with Autism, which followed families, including her own, through the Guide Dogs of America service dog program. It was released on Hulu during Autism Awareness Month.

Broadway credits for producing company Sing Out, Louise! Productions including Days of Wine and Roses and Allegiance, which starred George Takei and Lea Salonga and was based on the true events of Takei’s life. Co-productions include Hadestown, The Inheritance, A Strange Loop, Slave Play, & Juliet, Mrs. Doubtfire and The Notebook, among others in both the US and the UK.