Frank Welker

Born in Denver, Colorado, Frank Welker developed a stand-up comedy act in college which got him started on the concert circuit touring with The Righteous Brothers and Sergio Mendes. He continued with stand up, appearing in places including Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe as the opening act for headliners like Sonny and Cher, Diana Ross, Loretta Lynn, Ann-Margret and Neil Sedaka.

Welker's 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 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,” “The Burns and Schreiber Comedy Hour” and “Laugh Trax.” Welker also contributed special vocal effects in “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” the voice of Stripe in “Gremlins” and returned to an on-camera role in the film “The Informant,” playing Matt Damon's father.

Responsible for a broad spectrum of character voices, and other vocal effects that have appeared over the last 40 years in American television and motion pictures, Welker is listed as the number one "All Time Top 100 Stars at the Box Office," not as a box office draw, but in terms of the total revenue generated by the films in which he has participated.

Welker can be heard in many feature films playing characters like Abu the monkey from “Aladdin” to the animal-spirit Totoro and Catbus in the Disney’s “My Neighbor Totoro.” 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 voiced many recurring characters in the “Transformers” animated series, including eight of the original 14 Decepticons including Megatron, Galvatron, Soundwave, Skywrap, Laserbeak, Rumble, Frenzy, Ravage and Ratbat. In the second installment of the smash hit motion picture franchise, “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” he appeared as Soundwave and Ravage.

Paramount Pictures