IMDb > Frank Welker > Biography
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Date of Birth
12 March 1946, Denver, Colorado, USA

Birth Name
Franklin W. Welker

Height
5' 8" (1.73 m)

Trade Mark

Is often cast in animated production as the "voice" of various animal characters.

Voice of Fred "Freddy" Jones of Scooby-Doo's Mystery Inc.

The voice of Dr. Claw in "Inspector Gadget" (1983).

The voice of Megatron in "Transformers" (1984).


Trivia

Referred to in Hollywood as a voice god.

Has shared two roles with Leonard Nimoy. When the third season of "Transformers" (1984) came around, Frank took the role of Galvatron that Leonard Nimoy had taken in The Transformers: The Movie (1986). And in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), Frank provided the screams of Leonard Nimoy's most famous character, Spock.

Provided the voice for 8 of the original 14 Decepticons in the "Transformers" (1984) cartoon: Megatron, Soundwave, Skywarp, Lazerbeak, Rumble, Frenzy, Ravage, and Buzzsaw. He voiced two of the original Autobots as well: Trailbreaker and Mirage, as well as one of the Dinobots (Sludge) that also appeared in the first season.

He has done every voicing of Freddy "Fred" Jones for all of the Scooby-Doo series with the sole exception of "A Pup Named Scooby-Doo" (1988). Even in parodies and cameos on different TV shows, he has always done this voice.

Has done voices for both the original Star Trek film series and the television series "Star Trek: Voyager" (1995).

He also did the animal voice effects including Dumbo in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988).

In "Tiny Toon Adventures" (1990), he voiced Furrball, Gogo Dodo, Calamity Coyote, Little Beeper, Byron Basset, Uncle Stinky Pig, Henry Bear, and Ralph the Guard who later appeared in "Animaniacs" (1993), where Frank not only voiced Ralph, but also voiced Thaddeus Plotz, Buttons, Runt, Flavio Hippo, and Chicken Boo.

His broad spectrum of character voices, noises, and other vocal effects that have appeared over the last 40 years in motion pictures, have vaulted him to number one on the "All Time Top 100 Stars at the Box office" list. The revenue of films he has participated in have generated close to five billion dollars. His work in over 90 films has put him ahead of Eddie Murphy, Harrison Ford, Tom Hanks and Samuel L. Jackson.

Although he never met with the producers or the director Mike Bay, Bay felt his Welker's G1 Megatron voice did not fit the film and Bay's new interpretation. Ironically, he recreated the G1 voice for the "Transformer Game" based on the movie, and was once again reunited with his old nemesis Optimus Prime played by Peter Cullen.

One of the most prolific voice actors of all time, he has been involved with some of the most popular and important animated programs of all time as well, beginning with his role as level headed leader Fred Jones in Scooby-Doo, the evil Decepticon leader Megatron in Transformers (among others), Dr. Ray Stantz in The Real Ghostbusters, and a variety of supporting roles in GI Joe, Tiny Toons, Animaniacs, and The Smurfs.


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