Frank Welker

Welker was born in Denver, Colorado. He then moved to California and attended Santa Monica City College in Santa Monica, California, where he majored in theatrical arts. In 1966, he received honors for his performance as the Cowardly Lion in the college's theater production of The Wizard of Oz.^[2] During his transition between college and his voice acting career, his first voice-over role was in a commercial for Friskies dog food. The producer's girlfriend informed him of auditioning for Hanna-Barbera during the casting of Scooby Doo, where he initially auditioned for the title character but instead got the role of Fred Jones.^[3]

[edit]Acting career

Welker's first on camera film role was as a bar fight participant in Stan Dragoti’s 1972 film Dirty Little Billy. His next film role was in The Trouble with Girls, portraying a college kid from Rutgers University who befriends Elvis Presley. He 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 roles in Love American Style, The Partridge Family, and The Don Knotts Show. He played a prosecutor in highly acclaimed ABCspecial The Trial of General Yamashita and as Captain Pace beside Richard Dreyfuss' Yossarian in Paramount television’s pilot, Catch-22. He also appeared on Laugh In, TheDean Martin Roast, The Mike Douglas Show, The Tonight Show, Merv Griffin, The Smothers Brothers Show, The Burns and Schreiber Comedy Hour, Laugh Trax, and as one of the cast members in the 1985 special of That Was the Year That Was with David Frost. In the latter show, he appeared alongside Jim Staahl and Howie Mandel. Frank also played an on camera role of a voice actor on an episode of Simon and Simon and in the film The Informant as Matt Damon's father.

[edit]Voice acting career

Welker's first voice role came in 1969, as Fred Jones in Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!. As of 2002, Welker is the voice of both Fred Jones and Scooby-Doo. Welker is so closely connected with the character Fred, that any time the character appears in a cartoon (with the exception of A Pup Named Scooby-Doo), Welker provides the voice. His next major character voice was for Marvin White in the 1973 Hanna Barbera series Super Friends. He also provided the voice for Marvin's dog, Wonder Dog (which was inspired by Scooby-Doo). Welker would continue to provide voices for many other cartoon characters for the Hanna Barbera Company for several years.

During the 1980s and 1990s, Welker became a very busy actor, providing the voice for many popular cartoon characters in multiple shows including the villainous Doctor Clawin Inspector Gadget, Mister Mxyzptlk and both Darkseid and Kalibak in Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show, various G.I. Joe heroes and villains, Ray Stanz andSlimer in The Real Ghostbusters, and Hefty Smurf in The Smurfs. He also voices various characters on The Simpsons such as Santa's Little Helper and Snowball II. He provided the voice of Fall Apart Rabbit in the 1993 Disney series "Bonkers" and other various voices for the show, as well as the voices of Mr. Plotz, Runt and other various characters in "Animaniacs". He also provides the voice (both speaking and non-speaking) of Nibbler in Futurama. He has voiced several characters for Family Guy, including Fred Jones.

Welker performed as voice double for Leonard Nimoy in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, and provided voices for The Thing in 1986's The Golden Child, Sil in Species, and Malebolgia in 1997's Spawn. He has also created the vocal effects for different animals in films including the monkey Abu in Aladdin, its two sequels and the TV seriesAladdin, Arnold the Pig in the TV film Return to Green Acres, he was also the voice of Totoro from the English version of the Studio Ghibli film My Neighbor Totoro, and a variety of animals from Tiny Toon Adventures

In 2005, Welker became the new voice of Garfield, succeeding the original actor Lorenzo Music, who died in 2001 (Welker and Music had previously worked together in The Real Ghostbusters and the original Garfield and Friends). Welker voiced Garfield in Garfield Gets Real, Garfield's Fun Fest, Garfield's Pet Force, and also in the new seriesThe Garfield Show.

Welker has also provided voices for many video game characters including Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and The Shadow Blot in Epic Mickey.

In 2011, Welker returned as the voice of Road Runner, K-9, Hector the Bulldog, Bertie, and Mugsy in The Looney Tunes Show.

Welker provided the voice of Batman in a Scooby-Doo crossover segment of the Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode, "Bat-mite presents: Batman's Strangest Cases!".

Some of his most recent work is for the live action film Mr. Popper's Penguins. He also voiced Gargamel's cat Azrael for the 2011 live action film The Smurfs. However, Frank did not reprise his role as Hefty Smurf. He is also due to voice Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in the upcoming Disney video game Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two.^[4]

[edit]Transformers

In the 1980s, Welker voiced many recurring characters in the Transformers animated series. He voiced several Decepticons, including the leader Megatron, Soundwave,Skywarp, Mixmaster, Laserbeak, Buzzsaw, Rumble, Frenzy, Ravage, and Ratbat, as well as Autobots Mirage, Trailbreaker, Chromedome and Sludge. With the release of The Transformers: The Movie animated film in 1986, he took on the role of the Autobot Wheelie and afterwards, took over the role of Galvatron (which coincidentally was voiced by his Star Trek III castmate Leonard Nimoy).

Welker also returned to two of his Transformers roles when he portrayed Megatron and Soundwave as part of a spoof in the third season episode of Robot Chicken, aired shortly after the release of the live action film. In Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, he reprises the roles of Soundwave and Ravage, and also provides voices for Grindor, Devastator, and Reedman. He does not voice Megatron in any of the three live action films (Hugo Weaving was chosen for the role, instead). However, Frank did voice Megatron in the two video games based on the first two films.

At BotCon 2010 on June 26, 2010, it was revealed that Welker had been cast once again as Megatron in the new series Transformers: Prime.^[5]

He voiced Shockwave, Barricade and Soundwave in the film Transformers: Dark of the Moon. This adds to his already large roles in Transformers.