Peter Cullen died Wednesday at his Los Angeles home at 85. He voiced Eeyore across nearly 40 years of Disney’s Winnie the Pooh productions, including the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh attraction still running at Disney parks.
Peter Cullen, who voiced Eeyore for Disney across nearly four decades and Optimus Prime in Transformers, has died at 85.
Cullen died Wednesday, August 26, at his home in Los Angeles, his agent Kevin Motley confirmed to ABC News.
He was “surrounded by his loving family, and held in the hearts of his many friends and countless fans worldwide,” his family said in a statement.
His family’s request
“His family asks that you honor his remarkable legacy by serving your communities and leading others with compassion, integrity, and loyalty,” it read, “and always remember: be strong enough to be gentle.”
He voiced Eeyore for nearly 40 years
Cullen took over Eeyore from Ralph Wright, who had originated the character for Disney and died in 1983.
Beginning in 1988 with The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh on The Disney Channel, Cullen became the definitive voice of the gloomy donkey, carrying the role across the vast majority of Disney’s Pooh productions since. Brad Garrett voiced the character in 2018’s Christopher Robin and Ralph Breaks the Internet, but the part otherwise belonged to Cullen.
He described the role as a relief after years of shouting as Optimus Prime, and named Eeyore his favorite character to play after the Autobot leader.
“I get an awful lot of reactions from, especially, young kids, when I go up and just say, ‘Hello. Thanks for noticing me,’” he told NPR in 2014, slipping into the voice. “And to see their faces light up, that to me is one of the great joys.”
His voice is still in the parks
For anyone who has ridden The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh at Magic Kingdom, Disneyland, or Tokyo Disneyland, Cullen’s Eeyore is part of the attraction.
That means his performance continues playing on a loop, thousands of times a day, in front of families who mostly have no idea whose voice they are hearing.
He and Jim Cummings voiced Winnie the Pooh characters for years
Cullen shared the Hundred Acre Wood with Jim Cummings for the better part of forty years.
Cummings took over as Winnie the Pooh in 1988, the same year Cullen became Eeyore, and the two have anchored the cast ever since. Their partnership extended past Pooh: Cullen originated Monterey Jack on Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers, voicing the character through the first season and most of the second before Cummings took over the role.
Cummings was in the news just last week after being left off Disney’s 2026 Legends class, an omission fans called a travesty given his four decades of work.
His other Disney roles
Beyond the Hundred Acre Wood, Cullen turned up across the Disney animation slate of the late 1980s.
He voiced Admiral Grimitz and Bankjob Beagle on DuckTales, along with Mr. Gribbish and Mr. Dumpty on Rescue Rangers. He also narrated Disney’s read-along storybooks for the original Star Wars trilogy.
The career outside Disney
Cullen was born in Montreal on July 28, 1941, and built one of the most recognizable voice careers in American animation.
He debuted as Optimus Prime in The Transformers in 1984 and returned to the role for the live-action films beginning in 2007. He based the voice on his older brother Larry, a Marine who had told him that if he was going to play a hero, he should be strong enough to be gentle.
His other work ran from the announcer on The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour to K.A.R.R. on Knight Rider, the vocalizations of the title creature in 1987’s Predator, King Kong in the 1976 film, Venger on Dungeons & Dragons, and Thaedus on Invincible. He appeared in Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo, The Smurfs, Voltron, and Muppet Babies.
Two generations grew up with his voice without knowing his name. One heard a leader telling them to roll out. The other heard a donkey saying thanks for noticing.
Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.
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Hat Tips:
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ABC News (August 27, 2026), Katie Kindelan’s report confirming the death and the agent’s statement. ABC News is owned by Disney
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Variety (August 27, 2026), the family statement, the NPR quote, the Ralph Wright succession, and the wider career credits
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SlashFilm (September 2023), the Eeyore succession details, the theme park attraction credit, and the Brad Garrett exceptions
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Disney Wiki and Muppet Wiki (retrieved August 27, 2026), the DuckTales, Rescue Rangers, and Star Wars read-along credits
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Behind the Voice Actors (retrieved August 27, 2026), his birth date, birthplace, and the origin of the Optimus Prime voice
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