Please Rewind Talent Wall

Frank Welker

Frank Welker’s screen presence is more often heard than seen, but his range has helped shape decades of animation, fantasy and creature-driven filmmaking. Born in Denver on March 12, 1946, Welker studied theatrical arts at Santa Monica College, where his performance as the Cowardly Lion in a 1966 production of The Wizard of Oz earned honors. He began working as a stand-up comedian and impressionist the following year before moving into acting and voice work. His first voice-over job was a Friskies commercial, but the defining early turn came when he was cast as Fred Jones in Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! in 1969. Welker went on to voice Fred in almost every incarnation of the franchise, becoming the only original voice actor to remain with Scooby-Doo. That long association sits alongside another major piece of his career: Transformers. In the original animated series, he voiced Megatron, Soundwave and a substantial roster of Autobots and Decepticons, later returning to several of those characters across television, films, games and theme-park attractions. Welker’s particular gift for animal sounds, monsters and voices that seem to come from somewhere beyond an ordinary recording booth made him a natural fit for movies built around strange worlds. Among the films represented on Please Rewind, he voiced the Martians in Mars Attacks!, Alien Sil in Species and Malebolgia in Spawn. His work also reaches into Disney animation through Pegasus in Hercules and Cri-Kee in Mulan, while his credits include Beauty and the Beast, Pocahontas and The Pagemaster. That variety continues through such different films as The Chipmunk Adventure, Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, Stargate, The Santa Clause, Godzilla and The Iron Giant. Whether supplying a recognizable character voice or the sound of a creature that could not exist without him, Welker has built a career around making the impossible feel physically present. In 2016, that body of work was recognized with a Lifetime Achievement Emmy Award.