Frank Welker

at Voice Actor

Speaker

As the voice behind some of the most iconic and beloved characters in animation history, such as Scooby-Doo, Curious George, and one of the all-time great villains Megatron, Frank Welker has garnered the respect of audiences and peers alike for his unparalleled skills as a voice actor. 

Born in Denver, Colorado on March 12, 1946, Frank Welker began his career in entertainment while in college where he developed a stand-up comedy act which got him started on the concert circuit touring with artists such as The Righteous Brothers and Sergio Mendes. He continued his career in stand-up comedy performing in Las Vegas as well as Lake Tahoe where he was the opening act for such headliners as Sonny and Cher, Diana Ross, Loretta Lynn, Ann-Margret and Neil Sedaka.

Welker's early career included appearances in both films and on television. His first on-camera film role was as a bar fight participant in Stan Dragoti’s “Dirty Little Billy.” He played a college kid from Rutgers University in the Elvis Presley picture “The Trouble with Girls,” and later co-starred with Don Knotts in Universal’s “How to Frame a Figg.” Welker also appeared in two Disney films, “The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes” and “Now You See Him, Now You Don't.”

His on-camera television appearances included “Love American Style,” “The Partridge Family” and “The Don Knotts Show.” He played a prosecutor in the highly acclaimed ABC special, “The Trial of General Yamashita”, and as ‘Captain Pace’ beside Richard Dreyfuss' ‘Yossarian’ in Paramount television’s pilot “Catch-22.” He also made appearances on “Laugh In,” “The Dean Martin Roast,” “The Mike Douglas Show,” “The Tonight Show,” “Merv Griffin,” "The Smothers Brothers.” He was a regular on “The Burns and Schreiber Comedy Hour” and was a cast member on “Laugh Trax” and returned to an on-camera role in the film “The Informant,” playing Matt Damon's father.

Welker would eventually find his true calling as a voice actor with his first job in the animation industry for Hanna-Barbera in 1969 voicing the now iconic role of Fred Jones in the classic CBS Saturday morning series, “Scooby-Doo, Where are you!”

Frank’s contribution to the voice-over world stretches way beyond the Scooby-Doo universe as he has also voiced characters in the multiple iterations of the “Transformers” franchise both in television and film, including eight of the original 14 Decepticons including Megatron, Galvatron, Soundwave, Skywrap, Laserbeak, Rumble, Frenzy, Ravage and Ratbat. Welker also reprised the roles of Megatron and Soundwave in the series “Transformers: Prime” (retitled “Transformers: Prime – Beast Hunters” for its third season) and the video game “Transformers: Devastation.” In film he voiced Soundwave in the film “Transformers: Dark of the Moon”, Galvatron in “Transformers: Age of Extinction”, and reprised his signature role of Megatron in “Transformers: The Last Knight” adding to his already large list of roles within the Transformers franchise.

Beyond big franchises, Frank has also created the voices for a number of animated characters. He provided the voice of ‘Dinky’ on CBS’s “Dinky Dog’, ‘Fangface’ on ABC’s “Fangface” and he also played ‘Dynomutt’ in ‘The Scooby Doo/Dynomutt Hour’. He was the voice of ‘Jabberjaw’ and the voice of ‘Bufford’ on ‘The Bufford Files’, ‘Schlepcar’ on Sid and Marty Kroftts’ ‘Wonderbug’, ‘Herbie’ on ‘Fantastic Four’ and seven regular voices on Hanna-Barbera’s ‘Yogi Space Race’.

Other indelible characters created by Welker include ‘Wonder Dog’, ‘Shmoo’, ‘Doctor Claw’ on “Inspector Gadget”, various heroes and villains on “G.I. Joe”, ‘Baby Kermit’ and ‘Skeeter’ on the “Muppet Babies.” Also, he brought many characters to life in Steven Speilberg’s “Tiny Toon Adventures” and “Animaniacs.” Including the studio boss ‘Mr. Plotz’, and the studio’s questionable “guard” ‘Ralph the Guard’. He also played Runt, the sweet but dumb dog, against Bernadette Peters’ Rita the cat; both strays.

His other characters include the wide-eyed monkey ‘Abu’ in “Aladdin” to “Slimer” in “The Real Ghostbusters.” Welker voiced Gargamel's cat ‘Azrael’ in live action/animated film versions of “The Smurfs,” a role that he recently reprised in the feature film, “Smurfs: The Lost Village.” He can be heard as ‘Nibbler’ in “Futurama”, as well as the very opinionated cat ‘Garfield’ and the mischievous, curious monkey ‘Curious George’.

His work also includes creatures and monsters like the vocal effects for the character of ‘Sil’ in “Species,” ‘Goro’ in “Mortal Kombat,” the Devil in “The Golden Child” and ‘Malebolgia’ in “Spawn.” Welker also contributed special vocal effects for the monkey in “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” and the voice of Stripe and Mohawk in “Gremlins”.

Responsible for a broad spectrum of character voices, and other vocal effects that have appeared over the last 45 years in American television and motion pictures, Welker was listed as the number one "All Time Top 100 Stars at the Box Office for five consecutive years," not as a box office draw, but in terms of the total revenue generated by the films in which he has participated.

In 2016, for his unique and unparalleled contribution to this industry the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences recognized Welker by awarding him the Emmy for “Lifetime Achievement.”