Early life and education
Welker was born March 12, 1946, in Denver, Colorado. He later moved to California and attended Santa Monica College, where he majored in theatrical arts. In 1966 he was recognized for his performance as the Cowardly Lion in a college production of "The Wizard of Oz," an early showcase for the vocal range that would define his career.1
He started in show business as a stand-up comedian and impressionist in the late 1960s, touring the concert circuit with acts such as The Righteous Brothers and Sergio Mendes. His transition to voice work came through commercials, and one of his earliest recurring jobs was voicing a cat in advertisements for Friskies cat food, foreshadowing a lifelong specialty in animal vocalizations.1
Career
Voice acting
Welker's defining break came in 1969 when he was cast as Fred Jones in Hanna-Barbera's "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!" He has voiced Fred continuously since the franchise began, and beginning in 2002 he also took over the voice of Scooby-Doo, making him the only performer to play both lead roles in the series simultaneously across projects such as "What's New, Scooby-Doo?" and "Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated."1
He is equally identified with the Transformers franchise, where he originated Megatron and Soundwave in the 1980s animated series and went on to voice Galvatron and a large number of other characters. He returned to voice Megatron and other roles in the later live-action Transformers films.1
Welker's filmography is enormous. He has voiced Curious George (from 2006), Garfield (from 2007), Nibbler and other characters on "Futurama," and roles in productions including "Muppet Babies," "Aladdin," and "Pocahontas." His talent extends well beyond human speech into vocal effects and animal sounds, a craft for which he is widely regarded as unmatched: he provided Abu the monkey and Rajah the tiger in "Aladdin," the title spirit in Disney's 2005 English re-dub of "My Neighbor Totoro," and creature and animal vocalizations for numerous films. In live-action features he supplied vocal effects for Sil in "Species" (1995), Shao Kahn and Reptile in "Mortal Kombat" (1995), the Devil in "The Golden Child" (1986), and Malebolgia in "Spawn" (1997). His video game work includes the "Baldur's Gate" series and "CarnEvil."1
By 2020 Welker held roughly 850 film, television, and video game credits, ranking him among the most prolific voice actors ever, and films featuring his voice work have collectively grossed billions of dollars worldwide.1 (A DVD commentary remark by colleagues John DiMaggio and Billy West once put his tally at over 1,200 voices, a measure of the esteem he is held in by other performers.)
Live-action acting
Before settling into a full-time voice career, Welker worked on camera. His first film appearance was as a bar-fight participant in "Dirty Little Billy," and he played a Rutgers college student in the Elvis Presley picture "The Trouble with Girls" (1969). He co-starred with Don Knotts in Universal's "How to Frame a Figg," and appeared in the Disney films "The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes" and "Now You See Him, Now You Don't." On television he turned up on "Love, American Style," "The Partridge Family," and "The Don Knotts Show," played a prosecutor in the ABC special "The Trial of General Yamashita," and was a cast member alongside Jim Staahl and Howie Mandel on "Laugh Trax." He also appeared on the variety and talk circuit of the era, including "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In," "The Tonight Show," "The Mike Douglas Show," and "The Merv Griffin Show." Fittingly, one of his on-camera turns was playing a voice actor in an episode of "Simon & Simon."1
Awards
In 2016 Welker received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 43rd Annual Daytime Creative Arts Emmy Awards, honoring more than four decades of character voices and vocal effects in American television and film.1 The award was presented on April 29, 2016, at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles.2
Ghostbusters
The Real Ghostbusters
Welker was a lead voice on The Real Ghostbusters, where he played Dr. Ray Stantz and the team's resident ghost, Slimer. Beyond those two signature roles he voiced an enormous range of incidental characters and monsters across the series, including the Boogieman in "The Boogieman Cometh," the Sandman in "Mr. Sandman, Dream Me a Dream," the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man in several episodes, Mayor Lenny, Santa Claus, the Ecto-1, and dozens of one-off ghosts, animals, and townspeople. According to series lore, during recording sessions Welker had to be reminded repeatedly not to slip into the Gremlins-style vocalizations he had performed elsewhere.
Slimer!
When Slimer was spun off into his own segment, "Slimer!," Welker continued voicing the character along with recurring roles such as the cat Manx and Fred the dog, plus assorted guest creatures.
Extreme Ghostbusters
Welker returned as a guest voice for Extreme Ghostbusters, reprising Ray Stantz when the original Ghostbusters appeared. By contrast, Slimer was recast for that series; Billy West has said he was offered the role after being told Welker did not wish to return, an account West later described as untrue.
Personal life
Welker has been a licensed pilot since 2010 and flies a Beechcraft Bonanza.1
Welker's voice is inseparable from a generation of fans' first exposure to Ghostbusters through the Saturday-morning cartoons, which is why his name carries weight in the collecting and fan-art community even though he was a voice performer rather than an on-screen actor. IDW's Ghostbusters comics have repeatedly winked at him: he makes a non-canon cameo as a fleeing citizen on the first page of Ghostbusters Issue #3,3 his name appears on an in-panel list in Ghostbusters: Get Real Issue #3,4 and the "Ghostbusturtle" named Danny in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Ghostbusters Volume 2 Issue #4 is given the surname Welker as a nod to him.5
References
Some content on this page was researched using the Ghostbusters Wiki on Fandom.
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"Frank Welker," Wikipedia, accessed 2026-06-13, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Welker. Birth (March 12, 1946, Denver, Colorado), Santa Monica College theatrical-arts major, 1966 Cowardly Lion in "The Wizard of Oz," early Friskies cat-food commercial, Fred Jones since 1969 and Scooby-Doo since 2002, Megatron and Soundwave in the 1980s Transformers series, Curious George (2006), Garfield (2007), Totoro in the 2005 English re-dub, live-action and vocal-effects credits, roughly 850 credits as of 2020 (worldwide box-office gross of $17.4 billion as of 2024), the 2016 Daytime Creative Arts Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award, and licensed pilot since 2010 flying a Beechcraft Bonanza B36T.
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National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, "Frank Welker, the Voice of Scooby-Doo and Curious George, to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award at the 43rd Annual Daytime Creative Arts Emmy Awards," accessed 2026-06-13, http://emmyonline.com/day_43rd_lifetime_frank_welker. Award presented Friday, April 29, 2016, at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel and Suites in downtown Los Angeles.
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Ghostbusters Issue #3 (IDW Publishing, 2012), p. 1. Welker appears as a non-canon cameo, a citizen fleeing the Gozerian Terror Bear.
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Ghostbusters: Get Real Issue #3 (IDW Publishing, 2015), p. 12, panel 4. A list of names to the right of Peter Venkman includes "Welker."
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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Ghostbusters Volume 2 Issue #4 (IDW Publishing, 2017), p. 8. The Ghostbusturtle named Danny is given the surname Welker, a nod to Frank Welker, who voiced Ray Stantz in The Real Ghostbusters.
