Franklin Wendell "Frank" Welker is an American voice actor who has done many voices in many
animated series and films.
Early life 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.
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.
Career Live-action acting career
Welker's first on camera film role was as a bar fight participant in Stan Dragoti’s
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 three Disney films, The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, Now You See
Him, Now You Don't and Honey, I Shrunk The Kids.
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 ABC special 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, 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 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 as a voice actor on an episode of Simon & Simon, in The
Duck Factory, where he played a rival actor trying to steal the role of Dippy Duck from
fellow voice actor Wally Wooster and also appeared in the film The Informant as Matt
Damon's father.
In 1978, Frank Welker appeared on The Dean Martin Roast to George Burns.
While saluting Burns, he showed his abilities as an impressionist by honoring George Burns
with the voices of Walter Cronkite, Henry Kissinger, Muhammad Ali, David Frost and Jimmy
Carter.
Voice-acting career Welker's first voice role came in 1969, as
Fred Jones in the Hanna-Barbera series 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, Welker provides the voice.
His next major character voice was for Marvin White in the 1973 series Super Friends.
He also provided the voice for Marvin's dog, Wonder Dog.
Welker would continue to provide voices for many cartoon characters for Hanna-Barbera
for several years, which include Jabberjaw, Dynomutt, Dog Wonder, Pudge in Bailey's Comets
and The Shmoo in The New Fred and Barney Show and its spin-off The Flintstones Comedy Show.
Welker described the voice he used for The Shmoo as "a bubble voice".
In 1978, he played the title character in Fangface and later in its spin-off Fangface
and Fangpuss, and also voiced Heckle & Jeckle and Quackula in The New Adventures of Mighty
Mouse and Heckle & Jeckle, and Droopy in The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show.
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 Claw
in Inspector Gadget; Mister Mxyzptlk, Darkseid, Kalibak, and various heroes and villains in
Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show; various G.I.
Joe heroes and villains; Ray Stantz and Slimer in The Real Ghostbusters; the villainous Dr.
Jeremiah Surd in The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest; and Hefty Smurf in The Smurfs.
He also voices various characters on The Simpsons such as Santa's Little Helper and Snowball
II.
He also provided the voice of Fall Apart Rabbit in the 1993 Disney series Bonkers and other
various voices for the series, as well as the voices of Mr. Plotz, Runt, Ralph the Guard
and various other characters in Animaniacs and McWolf the main antagonist to Droopy and
his nephew Dripple in Tom and Jerry Kids and Droopy, Master Detective.
He also provides the voice of Nibbler in Futurama.
He has voiced several characters for Family Guy, including a parody of Fred Jones.
He played the voices of multiple characters in TaleSpin.
Welker performed as voice double for Leonard Nimoy in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock,
and provided voices for The Thing in The Golden Child, Sil in Species and Malebolgia in Spawn.
He has also created the vocal effects for different animals in films including the monkey
Abu in Aladdin, its two sequels and the television series Aladdin, Arnold the Pig in the television
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 voiced Garfield in Garfield Gets Real, Garfield's Fun Fest, Garfield's Pet Force,
and also in the new series The Garfield Show, which has been running from 2008 to present.
Welker has also provided voices for many video game characters including Oswald the Lucky
Rabbit and The Shadow Blot in Epic Mickey and its sequel Epic Mickey 2: The Power of
Two, as well as Zurvan, also called the "Ancient One", on StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm.
He also did the voice of Xzar, a mad mage from the video game series Baldur's Gate.
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!"
In the same episode, he also voiced the MAD magazine counterpart of Batman, Bat Boy.
More of his work includes performing the voice of George in the popular children's series
Curious George.
He has also performed for the live action film Mr. Popper's Penguins.
He also voiced Gargamel's cat Azrael in Sony Pictures Animation's live action/animated
film versions of The Smurfs.
Transformers In the 1980s, Welker voiced many recurring
characters in the original 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 in 1986, he took on the role of the
Autobot Wheelie and afterwards, took over the role of Galvatron.
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.
However, Welker did voice Megatron in the two video games based on the first two films
as well as the theme park attractions at Universal Studios Singapore, Universal Studios Hollywood
and Universal Studios Florida, Transformers: The Ride.
Welker also reprised the roles of Megatron and Soundwave in the series Transformers:
Prime,.
He voiced Shockwave, Barricade and Soundwave in the film Transformers: Dark of the Moon,
and Galvatron in Transformers: Age of Extinction, adding to his already large list of roles
within the Transformers franchise.
Filmography
References
External links Official website
Frank Welker @ The Numbers Frank Welker at the Internet Movie Database
Frank Welker at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia Frank Welker at AllMovie