Age: 80
male
Franklin Wendell Welker (born March 12, 1946) is an American voice actor with an extensive career spanning nearly six decades. As of 2021, Welker holds over 860 film, television, and video game credits, making him one of the most prolific voice actors of all time. With a total worldwide box-office gross of $17.4 billion, he is also the third highest-grossing film voice actor of all time. Welker is best known for voicing Fred Jones in the Scooby-Doo franchise since its inception in 1969, and Scooby-Doo himself since 2002. In 2020, Welker reprised the latter role in the CGI-animated film Scoob!, the only original voice actor from the series in the movie's cast. He has also voiced Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in Epic Mickey and its sequel, Megatron, Galvatron and Soundwave in the Transformers franchise, Shao Kahn and Reptile in the 1995 Mortal Kombat film, Curious George in the Curious George franchise, Garfield on The Garfield Show, Nibbler on Futurama, the titular character in Jabberjaw, Speed Buggy in the Scooby-Doo franchise, Astro and Orbitty on The Jetsons, Mushmouse on Punkin' Puss & Mushmouse, and various characters in The Smurfs as well as numerous animal vocal effects in many works. In 2016, he was honored with an Emmy Award for his lifetime achievement. Description above from the Wikipedia article Frank Welker, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Smurfs: Returning Village is upcoming American computer-animated adventure fantasy comedy film based on the characters by Peyo. A sequel to Smurfs: The Lost Village, it is the fourth film in the Smurfs film series, and is directed by David Bowers from a screenplay written by Pamela Ribon, Michael McCullers, Eyal Pobell and >Jonathon E. Stewart, and produced by Jordan Kerner and Mary Ellen Bauder Andrews. It stars the voice talents of Demi Lovato as Smurfette, with Joe Manganiello, Danny Pudi, Jack McBrayer, Mandy Patinkin, Julia Roberts, Eric Anderson, Joe Filippone, Timothy Spall, Rainn Wilson, Frank Welker, Lyric Ross, Owen Wilson, Joe Thomas, Shelley Duvall, Ariana DeBose, Bahia Watson and Gabriel Iglesias. In the film, after receiving word of the Lost Village planned to be destroyed by Gargamel and Azrael, Smurfette sets out on a mission with her friends Hefty, Brainy, and Clumsy, with Smurf Storm, Smurf Lily, Smurf Melody, and Smurf Blossom, to save the Lost Village. A sequel to Smurfs: The Lost Village was announced in November 2017 following the financial success of the film, with David Bowers overseeing the project as director. Lorne Cameron and Noah Baumbach served as co-directors. Kelly Asbury, the director of The Lost Village, served as an additional animator, making it his last film as an animator and a filmmaker. The film was dedicated to Kelly Asbury, who died on June 26, 2020, a month before the film was released.
