The Grim Reaper is REALLY pissing me off this week.
So, the reaper has struck another celebrity, and what a shitty week-plus of deaths too: Hayden Panettiere, Dolly Parton, Tim Curry, and now Peter Cullen , a decades-long voice-actor whom most people know as none other than Optimus Prime . All of these were sad, particularly the death of Panettiere, who died far too young as was essentially yet another victim of the Hollywood machine that chews up child stars. We failed to save the cheerleader, it would seem, but I digress. When I think of fictional heroes from my youth, my small list is pretty crystalized in my mind. I think of Captain James T Kirk, Spider-Man, Superman, the Fourth Doctor, and I think of Optimus Prime. Peter Cullen gave a toy a soul, and did such a good job that Hasbro didn't even realize that the fans cared. Killing off Optimus Prime in Transformers: The Movie was an easy business decision for them because of that ignorance, but a sea of subsequent parental complaints revealed it to have b...