I knew Peter Cullen through television.
I mean, he was also in movies, but TV is where I first heard his voice. I, like so many others, had only that one-sided relationship with him. In fact, I had met him only a couple of times throughout the years. The first time I met him was 1997 at BotCon (the annual Transformers convention) in Rochester, NY. He had been invited because he was Optimus Prime. The one and only. The voice of our childhoods.
I first saw him at the opening ceremony, wearing his trademark cowboy hat. He was introduced to a round of applause. Frank Welker, his friend and coworker, the voice of Megatron, had been invited as well but couldn’t make it. But he sent a recording as the Decepticon Leader in which he promised to destroy Peter. Peter looked highly amused at that.
His panel that weekend was the one everyone went to. We had never had a voice actor at a convention before, and Peter was the main Bot, so to speak. For an hour, he told tales of how he got the role, how he based it on his brother, how he had spent years in the industry (“I was the voice of Eeyore, always making an ass of myself.”), displaying his talents as the voice of the Predator.
One part always sticks out, which I wrote about in my Usenet review of the convention, which I copy here:
One sad note: Someone asks him about Chris Latta. The room grows rather quiet as Peter becomes extremely somber. “God bless him…. Johnny Carson had a famous line about Hollywood. ‘Hollywood is the only town that devours its young.'”
The room is silent for several moments. Peter then asks to move to a happier subject. So I ask him what he liked to do in his free time. He said he likes to raise cattle, horses. In fact, as I found out later, he was off to a rodeo after his time at BotCon.
But the way he answered the question about Chris Latta makes me think that the two of them were rather close, maybe as close as Peter and Frank Welker.
He was a man who had made friendships with his peers, and he treasured them.I saw him again at several other BotCons, and then two years ago I finally got my picture with him and Frank. My son asked if he could be in the picture as well, and I gladly agreed. Seeing Optimus point to my kid and say “Roll out!” is a treasured memory for this GenX geek.
That’s the extent of my interactions with him. A few convention panels, a few autograph sessions, a photo op. Just barely enough to get a general sense of who he was.
So, when a friend shared the news of his death, it hit me… but it didn’t. Here was someone who I heard almost every day from 1984 – 1990. I watched and rewatched all those Transformers episodes till I could probably recite them from memory. That cartoon became a defining part of my life during and after college, when Transformers brought me to know people that are still a core group of friends 30 years later.
Maybe I’m numb. Maybe this entire week of death has left me unable to process the loss. Maybe my love for Optimus and Transformers is more superficial than I thought. I mean, I didn’t know Peter. A couple of panels and brief hellos at conventions didn’t mean we were friends.
But then I think of the countless hours of entertainment he gave me and so many others. Optimus and Ironhide in Transformers. KARR in Knight Rider. Eeyore. The Toonami announcer. Predator. Monterey Jack. Countless other roles in GI Joe, Voltron, Visionaries.
And I think back to that 1997 panel, where he described how he based the character on his brother, but then he added that he felt Optimus was truly a role model. He felt it was an honor to play such a character and would do so again. “The world needs more Optimus Primes.”
It has been said that actors put a bit of themselves in every role, some roles more than others. Peter put the best of him into Optimus Prime, because it became more than a job. It was a responsibility to have a role model for kids, and it was his pledge to honor his brother.
Every time Optimus did something heroic, I knew Peter. Every time Optimus was wise, I knew Peter. Every time Optimus was brave, I knew Peter. And every time Optimus was brave enough to be gentle, I knew Peter.
We all did.
We knew Peter Cullen through television.
Rest easy, Peter. And thank you.