Frank Welker

So good, it's scary.

Frank W. Welker (born March 12, 1946) is an American voice actor god and former stand-up comedian (of somewhat less divine quality). During his stand-up career, he famously participated in The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast of George Burns and released a comedy album in 1988, Frank Welker--Almost Sold Out (featuring Answering Machines of the Rich & Famous).

As a voice actor, he's had a notoriously prolific career. Though it is but the tip of the iceberg, some of Welker's most notable roles include Fred Jones (and later Scooby) from the Scooby-Doo franchise, several characters in G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget, Ray Stantz and Slimer in The Real Ghostbusters, the current voice of Garfield, and that parrot that got eaten by the shark in Deep Blue Sea. He has also done nearly all the animal sounds recorded for cartoons, films and television in North America in the last few decades.

Basically, if you haven't seen a cartoon with Frank Welker in it, then that's because you've never seen a cartoon in your entire life.

Generation 1

The Transformers

Humans

• Frankenstein
• Hector Ramirez
• Poplock

Aliens

Creatures

Other

• Auto-combatant
• Teletraan II

Transformers: Devastation

• Megatron
• Soundwave

Movie franchise

Transformers: Beginnings

• Megatron

Transformers: The Game

• Megatron

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

• Soundwave
• Devastator
• Grindor
• Ravage
• Reedman

Revenge of the Fallen: The Game

• Megatron

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

• Shockwave
• Soundwave

Transformers: The Ride – 3D

• Devastator
• Grindor
• Megatron

Transformers: Age of Extinction

• Galvatron

Transformers: The Last Knight

• Megatron

Aligned

Transformers: Prime

• Bumblebee (pre-audio-enhanced dialogue)^[1]
• Megatron
• Terrorcon Cliffjumper ("Darkness Rising, Part 2")
• Trooper ("Con Job")
• Terrorcon Skyquake ("Shadowzone")
• Trooper #2 ("Hurt")
• Truck driver ("Legacy")
• Trooper #1 ("Thirst")
• Insecticons
• Soundwave
• Unicron (while possessing Megatron in "Predacons Rising")

Transformers: Prime - The Game

• Megatron

Transformers Universe

• Megatron

Transformers: Robots in Disguise

• Grimlock (roar sound effect only)
• Soundwave

Convention appearances

• BotCon 2015
• HasCon 2017
• Hasbro PulseCon 2020

Notes

• Because of Welker's fame for doing animal sound effects, there is a longstanding tendency in Transformers fandom for his name to immediately be attributed to any random animal screech heard in the Generation 1 cartoon. This is not always correct, as evidenced by the discovery of unmodified voice recordings from Generation 1 episodes^[2] that reveal Chris Latta provided the squawks of Laserbeak, when the role had been attributed to Welker for over thirty years. Ratbat, despite Frank voicing him in the one episode where he does squawk, had used Latta's caws for Laserbeak in the Secret Files of Teletraan II segment on the cassettes.
• Welker's name was mistakenly left out of the credits of the original pilot mini-series of The Transformers.
• According to Ben Yee, Bob Forward desperately wanted Welker to reprise the role of Generation 1 Megatron for the Beast Wars episode "The Agenda (Part 2)" and even offered to go to Welker's home in California and tape-record his lines there. However, Welker declined the role supposedly because Forward was unable to offer him a sufficient amount of money and his schedule was too busy.
• Welker regularly reprises the roles of Megatron and Soundwave on Family Guy and Robot Chicken.
• Throughout the '90s, Welker was the official voice of Steven Spielberg in all his animated appearances in shows like Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain and Freakazoid!.
• Welker also provided the voice of the GoBots Scooter, Rest-Q, Zeemon and Blaster, and Rock Lords Pulver-Eyes, Sticks and the Narliphant on the Challenge Of The GoBots animated series and movie.
• Welker had originally auditioned for the role of Megatron in the 2007 movie. However, Michael Bay deemed his voice too light for the character and, feeling it would be disrespectful to ask him to change it, chose Hugo Weaving instead. As a bit of compensation, he did get to go alongside his pal Peter Cullen in the first two video games. Welker got his feet wet when taking the role of Galvatron in Age of Extinction (reprising three roles at once - two incarnations of Megatron and one incarnation of Galvatron), and ultimately returned to the role for good in The Last Knight, using a deeper version of the sinister tone he implemented for Prime Megatron. Welker has voiced his approval for Weaving’s take in the years since the films’ release.
• Welker voiced Soundwave not only in the English version of Revenge of the Fallen, but also in a large number of foreign dubs. Welker described the process as "very hard".^[3] Although his performance was retained for the European French, European Spanish, and Italian dubs, other versions had his lines redone by native-speaking actors before the film's release. Welker still retained credit in those foreign versions, leading to confusion:
  • German dubbing insiders insist that the voice heard in Revenge of the Fallen is that of Horst Lampe.^[4] Lampe was credited for Soundwave in Dark of the Moon, seemingly confirming this claim.
  • The credits for the American-Spanish dub do not specify Welker's role, but Soundwave's voice as heard in the film does not seem to be Welker's. Soundwave is credited in Dark of the Moon as being played by Leonardo García, who is generally accepted as having also played him in Revenge of the Fallen.
  • His name is misspelled "Franck Welker" in the European French voice credits of Revenge of the Fallen.
• Welker was one of the eight voice actors featured in Shout! Factory's cast reunion in the 25th Anniversary "Matrix of Leadership" Collection of the original series.
• Welker also reprised Megatron during the February 24, 2022 Hasbro Pulse G.I. Joe 40th Anniversary celebration announcing he had partnered up with Cobra when they revealed the G.I. Joe Collaborative Megatron H.I.S.S. Tank.
• The voice Welker used for Bumblebee when recorded for Prime was his Scooter voice.
• Welker was born the same exact day as fellow Garfield VA Gérard Surugue.

External links

• Frank Welker at the Internet Movie Database
• Frank Welker's other works

Interviews

• September 17, 2024's The Voices of Optimus Prime & Megatron: Interview with Frank Welker & Peter Cullen | Transformers G1 on the Hasbro Pulse YouTube channel, with Peter Cullen.

References