Peter Cullen: Optimus Prime and Eeyore voice actor’s cause of death revealed

Iconic voice actor Peter Cullen’s cause of death has been revealed eight days after the tragic news broke.

The 85-year-old was best known for voicing Optimus Prime in the Transformers movies and Eeyore in Disney’s Winnie the Pooh franchise.

He sadly died at his Los Angeles home on August 26, with his cause of death revealed on Thursday as cardiac arrest, according to his death certificate obtained by TMZ.

The certificate also listed an underlying cause of death as respiratory arrest.

Other significant conditions contributing to his downfall included cerebellar metastasis, hypoxia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, hypertension and hyperlipidemia.

It comes after his devastated family confirmed his death in a statement saying Cullen “passed away peacefully, surrounded by his loving family — and held in the hearts of his many friends and countless fans worldwide.”

They asked, “that you honour his remarkable legacy by serving your communities and leading others with compassion, integrity and loyalty, and always remember be strong enough to be gentle”.

In a 2014 NPR interview, Cullen said that he was initially confused about how to approach playing Optimus Prime.

“I auditioned like everybody else,” he said. “I was told it was a hero, and I was told it was a truck.”

He channelled the spirit of his older brother Larry, a decorated US 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.”

The Canadian voiced the melancholic donkey Eeyore in The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh TV series from the late 1980s, as well as in The Book of Pooh, Piglet’s Big Movie and The Tigger Movie.

Cullen is also credited with coming up with the eerie clicking sounds that emerged from the mouth of the monster in the Arnold Schwarzenegger film Predator in 1987.