Franklin W. Welker (born February 16, 1945) is an American voice actor. He is responsible for a broad spectrum of character voices, noises, and other vocal effects that have appeared over the last 40 years in American TV shows and movies. Welker is particularly noted for a wide range of non-verbal vocal effects, i.e., for aliens and (non-talking) animals.
Frank Welker was born in Denver, Colorado. Before he began his career as a voice actor, Welker was a live-action character actor, and appeared in such films as Elvis' The Trouble with Girls. Welker's longest running role is also one of his earliest voice-over roles: as Fred Jones, the level-headed leader of the mystery-solving team from Hanna-Barbera's Scooby-Doo, Where are You!. He began the role in 1969, and Welker has continued to perform it through most of the show's various spinoffs and versions. This also includes many parodies and cameos of the character in other cartoons.
In the 1980s, Welker voiced Megatron, Soundwave and his cassettes, and Galvatron (Season 3) in the Transformers cartoon. In this he formed a team with Chris Latta, who voiced Starscream, Megatron's second-in-command. In 1988, Welker did the voice of Rulon leader Krulos in the TV-series Dino-riders. In this cartoon he again formed a team with Chris Latta, who (coincidentally?) voiced Rasp, Krulos' second-in-command. In G.I. Joe, Welker also teamed with Latta. (Other actors who featured in Transformers, Dino-riders and G.I. Joe are Jack Angel, Charlie Adler and Peter Cullen.) He also provided the voice of Dr. Ray Stantz and the garbled sounds of Slimer in The Real Ghostbusters and its several later versions.
Welker has been referred to as a "voice acting god" (by John DiMaggio and Billy West in the DVD commentary for Futurama) in Hollywood for the sheer number of voices he has done—over 1,200—ranging from his work on Scooby-Doo to the present day with his many roles in cartoons (Lilo & Stitch: The Series), films (The Cat in the Hat), and computer games (the Baldur's Gate series). In The Transformers, he voiced nearly all of the original Decepticons. With the release of the film, he took on the role of the Autobot Wheelie, and afterwards, took over the role of Galvatron from Leonard Nimoy. Having already provided the screams for Nimoy's character Mr. Spock in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, this marked the second time he had inherited a role from Nimoy. Welker did more live action movies during the 1990s. Among his work includes vocal effects for the character Goro in 1995's Mortal Kombat, the movie being based on Midway's popular fighting game, and Welker voiced the Devil Malebolgia in 1997's Spawn, the movie based on the very popular Todd McFarlane comic books. Welker also provided the voice (both speaking and non-speaking) of Nibbler in the cartoon TV series Futurama.
As of 2002, Welker is the voice of both Fred Jones and Scooby-Doo in What's New, Scooby-Doo?, the latest series-based spinoff to Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!. He has auditioned for the role of Megatron in the 2007 Transformers: The Movie live-action film. If cast, he would be voicing the role alongside Peter Cullen's return to the role of Optimus Prime. This would be the first time the two original voice actors for the Transformers leaders would be working together since the aborted season four of the series (known as Rebirth).
As of August 2nd, 2006, Frank Welker has surpassed Samuel L. Jackson as motion picture's all-time box office draw. Bringing in a total gross of $4.690 Billion at the box office. Source: http://www.the-numbers.com/people/records/index.php .
Partial filmography
- 101 Dalmatians: The Series - Thunderbolt, Steven, Scorch, Cynde
- Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius - Goddard
- Aladdin, - Abu
- The Burns and Schreiber Comedy Hour - Regular Cast Member
- Captain N: The Game Master - Game Boy (Seasons 2 & 3)
- Clay Fighter 63 1/3 - Blob, Icky Bod Clay, Lockjaw Pooch and the Zappa Yow Yow Boyz
- Curious George - voice of Curious George
- The Don Knotts Show - Regular Cast Member
- Donkey Kong Country - Krusha (Season 2)
- Dungeons & Dragons - Uni and Tiamat
- Dexter's Laboratory - Monkey, The Infraggible Krunk and Mr. Luzinsky
- Dragon Tales - Turtle Dragons
- Godzilla (1998 film) - Baby Godzillas
- Jackie Chan Adventures - Tchang Zu and Dai Gui
- Jim Henson's Muppet Babies - Kermit, Beaker, Skeeter, and Fozzie
- Super Mario Brothers Series-Bowser
- The Pagemaster- Voice Horror
- The Real Ghostbusters - Egon and Slimer
- Road Rovers - Shag
- Robotix (1985) - Bront, Terragar, Tyrannix
- SeaQuest DSV - voice of Darwin the dolphin
- Scooby-Doo - Freddy Jones and Scooby-Doo
- The Shadow - Phurba (Tibetan ritual dagger)
- The Simpsons - Santa's Little Helper and Snowball II, among others
- The Smurfs - Azrael, Clockwork Smurf, Hefty Smurf, Peewit, Poet Smurf, Puppy
- The Snorks - Occy, Tooter
- Space-Stars - Cosmo and Blip
- Spawn (film)~ Malebolgia
- Species - Alien Sil's vocal effects
- Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends - Bobby Drake/Iceman, Flash Thompson, Ms. Lion (Firestar's pet Dog)
- Stargate - mastadge pack animal
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze - Tokka and Rahzar
- Tiny Toon Adventures - Gogo Dodo, Little Beeper, Calamity Coyote, and Furrball
- Transformers - Megatron, Galvatron, Soundwave, Trailbreaker, Mirage, Teletraan II, Ravage, Rumble, Frenzy, Laserbeak, Skywarp, and many others
- Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch - Wheelie and Chopper