Frank Welker

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Frank Welker
Born	Franklin W. Welker March 12, 1946 (1946-03-12) (age 62) Denver, Colorado
Occupation	Voice actor
Official website

Franklin W. Welker (born March 12, 1946) is an American voice actor. He is 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 the over 90 films he has participated in have generated.^[1]

Contents 1 Early life 2 Acting career 3 Voice actor 4 Transformers 5 Partial filmography 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Early life

Welker was born in Denver, Colorado. He attended college in California, where he later began his career appearing in commercials. While in college he appeared in numerous plays, and developed a stand-up comedy act 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 Margaret and Neil Sedaka.

[edit] Acting career

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. 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 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 appeared on Laugh In, The Dean Martin Roast, The Mike Douglas Show, The Tonight Show, Merv Griffin, The Smothers Brothers Show, The Burns and Schreiber Comedy Hour and Laugh Trax. In the latter show, he was a cast member alongside Jim Staahl and Howie Mandel. Frank also played an on camera role of a voice actor on an episode of Simon and Simon.

[edit] Voice actor

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. His voice acting credits include television shows and films such as Curious George, Aladdin, Pocahontas and computer games such as the Baldur's Gate series, and CarnEvil. Frank's ability goes beyond creating human voices and is often cast as animals and used for animal vocals, for example the animal-spirit Totoro in the Disney 2005 re-dub of My Neighbour Totoro. He was described as "unbelievable" at imitating animal sounds by Maurice LaMarche in a Futurama DVD commentary.

Welker appears in Disney Princess Enchanted Tales: Follow Your Dreams, playing Abu and Rajah.

Welker did more live action movies during the 1990s. Among his work includes vocal effects for the character of Sil in Species, Goro in 1995's Mortal Kombat, the Devil in 1986's The Golden Child, and Malebolgia in 1997's Spawn. Welker also provided the voice (both speaking and non-speaking) of Nibbler in the cartoon TV series Futurama and was also the voice of Snot Tiger in the 2006 Walt Disney animated film The Fox and the Hound 2.

As of 2002, Welker is the voice of both Fred Jones and Scooby Doo. This includes the most recent What's New, Scooby-Doo?, and the series-based spinoff, Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue! Also, Welker starred in most of the 2000's Scooby-Doo projects as Fred Jones and Scooby-Doo. He also was Sasquatch in The Legend of Sasquatch. Welker's talent was also recognized in Disney's Stitch: Experiment 626, voicing the jealous and manicial Experiment 6-2-1.

His most recent character is Garfield in Garfield Gets Real, the first in a series of new Garfield DVDs.

[edit] Transformers

In the 1980s, Welker voiced many recurring characters in the Transformers animated series. He voiced eight of the original 14 Decepticons: Megatron/Galvatron, Soundwave, Skywarp, Laserbeak, Buzzsaw, Rumble, Frenzy, Ravage, and Ratbat. He also did voicework as the Autobots Mirage, Trailbreaker and Wheelie. With the release of the animated film in 1986, 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 was asked to audition to reprise his original role of Megatron in the 2007 live action Transformers movie. Apparently due to conflict in schedules, Welker never met with the producers or director Michael Bay. Bay, however, had Welker send him a couple of recorded lines and concluded Welker's Megatron did not fit his new interpretation of the character. Although this did not occur in the film itself, Welker reunited with Transformers co-star Peter Cullen in the 2007 Transformers: The Game, with both returning to voice their signature roles. He also reprised his role in the animated prequel, a bonus premium of the DVD package.

Welker also returned to two of his most famous 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.

[edit] Partial filmography

• 101 Dalmatians: The Series - Thunderbolt, Steven, Scorch, Cynde
• ABC Weekend Special - O. G. Readmore
• Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius - Goddard
• Aladdin, The Return of Jafar and Aladdin and the King of Thieves - Abu
• Aladdin (TV series) - Abu, Rajah, Xerxes, additional voices
• Aladdin in Nasira's Revenge - Abu
• "Anaconda" -vocal effects for the anaconda as well as other animals
• Animaniacs - Runt, Flavio Hippo, Buttons, Ralph the Guard, Thaddeus Plotz, and Chicken Boo, occasional segment narration
• Bonkers - Fall-Apart Rabbit, Toots, Roderick the Toon Radio, Toon Handbag, Cadet Quark, Elmo, additional voices
• The Burns and Schreiber Comedy Hour - Regular Cast Member
• Buzz Lightyear of Star Command - Grubs, Wirewolf Vocal Effects
• Captain N: The Game Master - Game Boy (Seasons 2 & 3)
• Cats Don't Dance - Farley Wink
• Challenge of the Gobots - Scooter, Zeemon, Blaster, Rest-Q
• Challenge of the Superfriends- The Toyman
• Clay Fighter 63 1/3 - Blob, Ickybod Clay, Lockjaw Pooch and the Zappa Yow Yow Boyz
• Codename: Kids Next Door - Professor XXXL, Mr. Uno
• Cro - Gogg, Bobb, Earle, Big Red
• Curious George - voice of George
• Dexter's Laboratory - Monkey, Quackor, The Infraggible Krunk and Mr. Luzinsky
• Disney's Stitch: Experiment 626 - Experiment 621 (Chopsuey)
• Dink, the Little Dinosaur - Scat and Crusty
• The Don Knotts Show - regular cast member
• Dragonball Z - Great Ape
• DuckTales - Bigtime and Baggy Beagle, Bubba, Tootsie and Poe De Spell
• Dungeons & Dragons - Uni and Tiamat
• Dynomutt, Dog Wonder - Dynomutt, the dog wonder
• Evil Con Carne - Boskov the Bear
• The Fairly Oddparents - Doidle, Dinkledog, The Sewer Gator
• Fangface - Fangs/Fangface
• Fangface and Fangpuss - Fangs/Fangface, Baby Fangs/Fangpuss
• Family Guy - Freddy Jones, Kermit the frog
• Futurama - Nibbler (both talking and non-talking versions), Seymour, and numerous other animal and humanoid voices
• G.I. Joe - Copperhead, Flash, Freedom, Junkyard, Polly, Short-Fuse, Timber, Torch, and Wild Bill
• Garfield and Friends - Booker, Sheldon, Bo, Mort, Fred Duck, Dr. Garbanzo Bean
• Gargoyles - Bronx and Baby Alex
• Goof Troop - Waffles and Chainsaw
• Gremlins - Stripe and other Mogwai and Gremlins
• Gremlins 2: The New Batch - Mohawk, Daffy, Lenny, George, and other Gremlins.
• Hercules: The Animated Series - Pegasus, additional voices
• Inspector Gadget - Brain, Doctor Claw, and Mad Cat
• Jabberjaw - Jabberjaw
• The Jetsons - Orbity (Seasons 2 & 3, 1984-1987)
• Jim Henson's Muppet Babies - Kermit, Beaker, and Skeeter (1985-1990)
• Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius- Goddard and many other animals and creatures
• Jumpstart Spelling - Perry
• The Land Before Time
  • The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure - Tyrannosaurus (uncredited)
  • The Land Before Time III: The Time of the Great Giving - Velociraptors
  • The Land Before Time IV: Journey Through the Mists - Tickles
  • The Land Before Time V: The Mysterious Island - Carnosaur (uncredited)
  • The Land Before Time VIII: The Big Freeze - Albertosaurus (uncredited)
  • The Land Before Time XI: Invasion of the Tinysauruses - Velociraptors (uncredited)
  • The Land Before Time XII: The Great Day of the Flyers - Spinosaurus (uncredited)
• The Lion King - Animal Vocal Effects
• The Little Mermaid - Max the Sheepdog, shark, other animal vocal effects
  • The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea - Max the Sheepdog
  • The Little Mermaid III: Ariel's Beginning - Max the Sheepdog
• Man's Best Friend: Vocal Effects for Max the expiramental dog and Boo the cat.
• Mars Attacks! -Martians
• Mighty Max - Warmonger
• My Neighbor Totoro - Totoro / Catbus (Disney English version)
• Monkey Shines - Vocal Effects for Ella the monkey
• Mortal Kombat - Voice of Shao Kahn (provided vocal effects for Goro)
• Mulan - Khan, Cri-Kee
• Munchies- Arnold and other munchies voices
• Oliver & Company - Louie the Hot Dog Man, Additional voices
• The Pagemaster - Voice of Horror, Dragon, Parrot
• The Pirates of Dark Water - Niddler, Dark Dweller, Morpho, Lugg Brother #2
• Pocahontas - Flit
• Raiders of the Lost Ark - Seig Heil the monkey, snakes, scorpions, demons
• Rambo: The Force of Freedom - Mad Dog
• The Real Ghostbusters - Ray Stantz, Samhaine, The Bogeyman and Slimer
• The Robonic Stooges - Curly
• Roger Rabbit
  • Roller Coaster Rabbit - Bull
  • Trail Mix-Up - Beaver / Bear
• SeaQuest DSV - voice of Darwin the Dolphin
• Scooby-Doo - Freddy Jones (1969-present) and Scooby-Doo (for the 2002 series What's New, Scooby-Doo?)
• Scooby's All-Star Laff-a-Lympics- Tinker, Yakky Doodle, Magic Rabbit, Sooey Pig, Dynomutt
• Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue!- Scooby-Doo
  • occasionally provides the voice of Fred if the character appears in this incarnation
• The Simpsons - Santa's Little Helper and Snowball II, among others
• The Smurfs - Clockwork Smurf, Hefty Smurf, Peewit, Poet Smurf, Puppy
• The Snorks - Occy, Tooter
• Spawn - Malebolgia
• Species - Alien Sil's vocal effects
• Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends - Bobby Drake/Iceman, Flash Thompson, Ms. Lion (Firestar's pet Dog)
• SpongeBob Squarepants - Giant clams, misc. voices.
• Stargate - mastadge pack animal
• Superfriends- Marvin
• Superfriends: The Legendary Super Powers Show - Darkseid, Kalibak, Mr Mxyzptlk, Dollmaker
• Swat Kats: The Radical Squadron - Dr. Viper
• The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians - Darkseid, Kalibak, Mr. Mxyzptlk
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze - Tokka and Rahzar
• The Little Engine That Could - Perky the Elephant/Eagle/Farnsworth/Jebediah/Rollo
• Tiny Toon Adventures - Gogo Dodo, Little Beeper, Calamity Coyote, and Furrball
• The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show - Spike, Droopy, Slick Wolf, Barney Bear
• Tom and Jerry: The Magic Ring - Jerry
• Transformers - Megatron, Galvatron, Soundwave, Trailbreaker, Mirage, Teletraan II, Ravage, Rumble, Frenzy, Laserbeak, Skywarp, and many others
• Troll voice of Torok the troll and various other creatures
• What's New, Scooby-Doo? - Freddy Jones, Scooby-Doo
• Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch - Wheelie and Chopper
• Yogi's Great Escape - Bopper, Yapper, the Real Ghost

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Frank Welker @ The Numbers
• Frank Welker at the Internet Movie Database
• Frank Welker at the Voice Chasers Database
• Frank Welker article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki

Preceded by Mel Blanc	Voice of Barney Rubble July 1989 — (programs and some commercials, Jeff Bergman does Barney for commercials)	Succeeded by present
Preceded by Don Messick	Voice of Scooby-Doo September 2002 —	Succeeded by present
Preceded by none	Voice of Fred Jones 1969- Present	Succeeded by present
Preceded by Dan Aykroyd	voice of Dr. Raymond Stantz 1986-1991	Succeeded by present
Preceded by Bill Murray	Voice of Garfield the Cat 2007-present	Succeeded by present