Frank Welker

Frank Welker
Background Information
Born	March 12, 1946
Occupation	Voice actor
Nationality	American
Years Active	1969-present

Frank Welker (born February 16, 1946) is an American voice actor. He is responsible for a broad spectrum of character voices, noises, and other vocal effects that have appeared over the last 40 years in American TV shows and movies. Welker is particularly noted for a wide range of non-verbal vocal effects, i.e., for aliens and (non-talking) animals.

Biography

Frank Welker was born in Denver, Colorado. Before he began his career as a voice actor, Welker was a live-action character actor, and appeared in such films as Elvis' The Trouble with Girls. Welker's longest running role is also one of his earliest voice-over roles: as Fred Jones, the level-headed leader of the mystery-solving team from Hanna-Barbera's Scooby-Doo, Where are You!. He began the role in 1969, and Welker has continued to perform it through most of the show's various spinoffs and versions. This also includes many parodies and cameos of the character in other cartoons.

In the 1980s, Welker voiced Megatron, Soundwave and his cassettes, and Galvatron (Season 3) in the Transformers cartoon. In this he formed a team with Chris Latta, who voiced Starscream, Megatron's second-in-command. In 1988, Welker did the voice of Rulon leader Krulos in the TV-series Dino-riders. In this cartoon he again formed a team with Chris Latta, who (coincidentally?) voiced Rasp, Krulos' second-in-command. In G.I. Joe, Welker also teamed with Latta. (Other actors who featured in Transformers, Dino-riders and G.I. Joe are Jack Angel, Charlie Adler and Peter Cullen.) He also provided the voice of Dr. Ray Stantz and the garbled sounds of Slimer in The Real Ghostbusters and its several later versions.

Welker has been referred to as a "voice acting god" (by John DiMaggio and Billy West in the DVD commentary for Futurama) in Hollywood for the sheer number of voices he has done—over 1,200—ranging from his work on Scooby-Doo to the present day with his many roles in cartoons (Lilo & Stitch: The Series), films (The Cat in the Hat), and computer games (the Baldur's Gate series). In The Transformers, he voiced nearly all of the original Decepticons. With the release of the film, he took on the role of the Autobot Wheelie, and afterwards, took over the role of Galvatron from Leonard Nimoy. Having already provided the screams for Nimoy's character Mr. Spock in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, this marked the second time he had inherited a role from Nimoy. Welker did more live action movies during the 1990s. Among his work includes vocal effects for the character Goro in 1995's Mortal Kombat, the movie being based on Midway's popular fighting game, and Welker voiced the Devil Malebolgia in 1997's Spawn, the movie based on the very popular Todd McFarlane comic books. Welker also provided the voice (both speaking and non-speaking) of Nibbler in the cartoon TV series Futurama.

As of 2002, Welker is the voice of both Fred Jones and Scooby-Doo in What's New, Scooby-Doo?, the latest series-based spinoff to Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!. He has auditioned for the role of Megatron in the 2007 Transformers: The Movie live-action film. If cast, he would be voicing the role alongside Peter Cullen's return to the role of Optimus Prime. This would be the first time the two original voice actors for the Transformers leaders would be working together since the aborted season four of the series (known as Rebirth).

As of August 2nd, 2006, Frank Welker has surpassed Samuel L. Jackson as motion picture's all-time box office draw. Bringing in a total gross of $4.690 Billion at the box office. Source: http://www.the-numbers.com/people/records/index.php .

Character Role

Filmography

• Gremlins (1984) - Special Vocal Effects
• Gallavants (1984) - Antik, Traw
• SpaceCamp (1986) - Jinx (the robot)
• The Great Mouse Detective (1986) - Toby, Felicia
• Oliver & Company (1988) - Louie
• Who Framed Roger Rabbit  (1988) - Dumbo
• The Little Mermaid (1989) - Max the Dog
• The Rescuers Down Under (1990) - Joanna, Additional Special Vocal Effects
• The Seventh Brother (1991) - Hawk
• The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland (1999) - Oggy (voiced in some scenes)
• Aladdin (1992) - Abu, Rajah, The Cave of Wonders
• The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) - The Demon
• The Lion King (1994) - Simba and Mufasa Roars and Mouse and Wildebeests
• A Goofy Movie (1995) - Bigfoot
• Pocahontas (1995) - Flint
• Toy Story (1995) - Scud
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) - Baby Bird
• The Neverending Story III Escape From Fantasia (1996) - Unlucky Bunny and Bird
• Hercules (1997) - Pegasus
• A Bug's Life (1998) - The Bird, Baby Chicks Thumper
• The Lion King II: Simba's Pride (1998) - Simba & Kovu (Roars) African Elephants Crocodile Topi Antelopes Spotted Thick Knees and Rhino
• Disney's Animal Kingdom (1998) - The Elephants and The Dragon
• The Rugrats Movie (1998) - Spike, Scar Snout, The Monkeys
• Doug's 1st Movie (1999) - Herman Melville
• Tarzan (1999) - The Jaguar and Elephants
• Toy Story 2 (1999) - Bullseye, Buster
• The Road to El Dorado (2000) - Altivo Bibo and Bull
• The Tigger Movie (2000) - Bees and Frogs
• Chicken Run (2000) - The Dogs
• Dinosaur (2000) - Aladar's Mother (Bellowing) and Carnotaurus
• Rugrats in Paris: The Movie (2000) - Spike, Fifi
• Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure (2001) - Reggie
• Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (2001) - Goddard
• Return to Never Land (2002) - Nana II, Giant Octopus
• Snow Dogs (2002) - Sknuk Fox and Grizzly Bear
• Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002) - The Eagle The Buffalos and The Cougar
• Cinderella II: Dreams Come True (2002) - Lucifer, Pom Pom, Bruno
• Spider-Man (2002) - Norman Osborn / Green Goblin
• Tom and Jerry: The Magic Ring (2002) - The Jewelry Store Owner and Tyke
• Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003) - Spike
• The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2004) - Additional voices
• Without A Paddle (2004) - Deer (Growls) Grizzly Bear Lynyrd & Skynyrd
• Curious George (2006) - George
• Cars (2006) - Frank
• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) - Soundwave, Devastator, Reedman
• Toy Story 3 (2010) - Bullseye, Buster
• Yogi Bear (2010) - Frog-Mouthed Turtle
• The Grinch (2018) - Max (uncredited)
• Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011) - Shockwave, Soundwave
• The Smurfs (2011) - voice of Azrael
• The Smurfs 2 (2013) - voice of Azrael
• Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014) - Galvatron
• Open Season: Scared Silly (2015) - Animals' vocal effects
• Smurfs: The Lost Village (2017) - Azrael, Bucky
• Transformers: The Last Knight (2017) - Megatron
• Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween (2018) - Gummy bears
• The Grinch (2018) - Max
• Dumbo (2019) - Dumbo
• The Secret Life of Pets 2 {2019 } - Hu the white tiger
• Finding Dory {2016 } - Giant Squid

External links

• Frank Welker at the Internet Movie Database (IMDB)