I hope they retire Optimus Prime the way Baseball teams retire players numbers. Peter Cullen is an act that can't be followed and any attempt to do so will sully the memory.
A number of other actors have already voiced Optimus in Transformers media, with varying quality. Jake Foushee, who has appeared in a few recent productions, does a competent impression of Cullen's performance.
The neat thing about characters is they can outlive the actors who play them. Retiring Optimus would be like retiring Bugs Bunny after the death of Mel Blanc.
Here he is telling a powerful story about finding the voice by being inspired by his brother's calm authoritative voice, a Vietnam veteran. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zryfjSaxXLo
His Optimus Prime voice was inspired by his older brother, a decorated US Marine and Vietnam War veteran, who suggested he should play the character as "a real hero, don't be a Hollywood hero".
"He said, 'Don't go yelling and screaming. He's strong enough to be gentle.'
"And that resonated with me, and I could hear his voice all the way to the audition. When he drops down, when he gets serious, is where I found Optimus Prime."
Cullen gave his brother a cut of the wages he received for playing Optimus Prime until his death.
Was a bit too old for Transformers when it became popular but even watching a few mins here and there was enough to imprint Optimus’ voice on me. When they hired him for the movies I thought, well of course they did.
Believe that puts him in the same league as James Earl Jones as Mufasa. RIP
https://archive.org/details/soundcloud-84634273
The neat thing about characters is they can outlive the actors who play them. Retiring Optimus would be like retiring Bugs Bunny after the death of Mel Blanc.
His Optimus Prime voice was inspired by his older brother, a decorated US Marine and Vietnam War veteran, who suggested he should play the character as "a real hero, don't be a Hollywood hero".
"He said, 'Don't go yelling and screaming. He's strong enough to be gentle.'
"And that resonated with me, and I could hear his voice all the way to the audition. When he drops down, when he gets serious, is where I found Optimus Prime."
Cullen gave his brother a cut of the wages he received for playing Optimus Prime until his death.
https://www.fathomentertainment.com/transformers40thannivers...
Believe that puts him in the same league as James Earl Jones as Mufasa. RIP
Such a big part of my youth