1960–1970 In 1968, he and
Joan Stuart appeared as "Giles" and "Penelope" in ''L'Anglaise
, a recurring segment about a French-Canadian man with an English-Canadian wife, on the CBC Radio comedy series, Funny You Should Say That''. Cullen played a French-Canadian astronaut character named Commander Bi Bi Latuque alongside
Ted Zeigler for the 1969 children's show,
The Buddies on
CFCF-TV in Montreal. He honed his voice skills by working as a radio announcer, notably in his home town of Montreal on (then) MOR station CKGM doing the overnight and weekend swing shifts. From 1967 to 1969, he was the announcer for
The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. From 1971 to 1974, he, Zeigler, and
Billy Van were series regulars on
The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour. In 1974, Cullen was the announcer and a series regular alongside Zeigler and Van on
The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show. He lent his voice to a character in the album "The Story of Halloween Horror" in 1977.
As Optimus Prime at a convention in Portland in 2024. Cullen recalls auditioning for the role of the robot character
Optimus Prime at a casting house in
Burbank, California, explaining that as he read Prime's character breakdown, he saw that it was "the opportunity of the year", and heeded his brother Larry's advice: "Peter, don't be a Hollywood hero, be a real hero. Real heroes don't yell and act tough; they're tough enough to be gentle, so control yourself." Cullen later learned from his agent, Steve Tisherman, that he not only won the part of Prime, but also, to his surprise, the role of Ironhide as well, which he saw as a "
home run". He has also stated that he had no idea of Prime's popularity until the character's controversial death in the
1986 animated film, because the studio had never given him fan letters from children addressed to Optimus. The public backlash over Optimus's death surprised producers greatly. Children were leaving the theaters distraught because of the character's death. The writers temporarily revived the character for a single episode in Season 3 called "Dark Awakening". Initially, this was intended to be his final appearance, but after fan requests continued, "
The Return of Optimus Prime", a two-part episode was produced. The original ending of "Dark Awakening" was altered in reruns to include a teaser about the return of the character, and indeed, Optimus returned once and for all to lead the Autobots for the final five episodes of the original American cartoon series. Cullen reprised the role of Optimus Prime in the 2007
Transformers live-action film, the sequels
Revenge of the Fallen,
Dark of the Moon,
Age of Extinction and
The Last Knight, the reboot and its sequel,
Bumblebee and
Rise of the Beasts and the video games based on the film series. Though he was only contractually obligated to voice Optimus up to
The Last Knight, Cullen again reprised his role as Optimus Prime in the video games
Transformers: War for Cybertron,
Transformers: Fall of Cybertron and
Transformers: Devastation, and in the television series
Transformers: Rescue Bots,
Transformers: Prime and
Transformers: Robots in Disguise. His performance in the premiere season of
Transformers: Prime earned him a nomination for a
2011 Daytime Emmy Award in the
Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program category.
Other work In the 1980s and 1990s, Cullen appeared on a number of television shows. He has played Coran, Stride the Tiger Fighter, and King Alfor in the
Lion Voltron series, the transforming spaceship/robot Ramrod, the heroic Commander Eagle and the villainous Nemesis in the 1980s
anime series
Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs, Commander James Hawkins in the
Vehicle Voltron series,
Eeyore in the
Winnie the Pooh franchise, the original voice of
KARR in
Knight Rider, Antor and Bomba, and Gunner, in
Dino-Riders,
Airborne,
Zandar and Nemesis Enforcer in
G.I. Joe. He played Mantor/Mantys in Coleco's 5 episode mini-series
Sectaurs in 1986; Red Skull in the 1981 cartoon series of
Spider-Man, Klaar and Zanzoar in
Megas XLR and Mantus in
The Pirates of Dark Water. He also had a voice part in the 1984 motion picture
Gremlins (as a gremlin) and in the first season of the
2008 Knight Rider series, where he reprised his vocal role as KARR (from the original
Knight Rider series). He also did voicework in
The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible series, notably as
Japheth, one of Noah's sons in the "Noah's Ark" episode, and the King of
Nineveh in the "Jonah" episode. He was well known by some as the main villain Venger in the animated series of
Dungeons & Dragons. He played the evil sorcerer Renwick in
Little Wizards and Cindarr in
Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light. Among many other television series and films, he has also lent his
basso voice to many
film trailers and television commercials, including announcing for the
Toonami and
You Are Here blocks on the
Cartoon Network. Cullen spent some of his early professional years in Montreal as a radio announcer/DJ on
CKGM; and as a character in a then-popular local television kids show. He acted the role of a French-Canadian astronaut, along with writer and his partner on the show, Ted Ziegler. Both Ziegler and Cullen were in the supporting cast of
The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, as well as other network comedies of the era. He voiced
Nintendo's mascot
Mario in the
Donkey Kong segments on the 1983–1984 TV series
Saturday Supercade, making him the first person to ever provide a voice for the character in western media. Cullen has done voicework on
drum and bass DJ
Dieselboy's 2004 album, ''The Dungeonmaster's Guide
, and narration on the 2013 album Tetragrammaton
by the Dutch extreme metal band The Monolith Deathcult. Tetragrammaton'' also featured Cullen on bass in "God's Among Insects." Additionally, he did voicework for the unreleased
Blizzard Entertainment game
Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans, and provided narration for the
Star Wars fan film series I.M.P.S.: The Relentless. Cullen is a voice announcer on
Police Story 4: First Strike in advertisements for
New Line Cinema, lending his experience as an ex-cop for the Santa Monica division to the cast. He has also done voice work for promotions of the 1999 film
The Iron Giant. In 2023, he joined season 2 of
Amazon Originals Invincible series. ==Personal life==