John Stephenson, voice of Thundercracker and Kup, passes away at 91

Sunday, May 17th, 2015 10:15PM CDT

Categories: Cartoon News, People News
Posted by: william-james88 Views: 33,949

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Thanks to sources provided by Sabreblade, we have the sad news that legendary voice actor John Stephenson has passed away at the age of 91. He had been suffering from Alzheimer's for some time and living in a nursing home. Among his many voice roles, he was known as the voice of Mr. Slate on The Flintstones, and to Transformers fans, he was the voices of Alpha Trion, Thundercracker, Windcharger, Huffer, Kup (seasons 3 and 4, not the movie), Devcon, and some smaller roles in the G1 cartoon.

The Internet Movie Database lists 232 credits for him as both an on-camera and voiceover actor and we are pretty certain that this is just a fraction of the work he did.

May you rest in peace sir.

Transformers News: John Stephenson passes away at 91

Credit(s): Black Bumblebee, www.newsfromme.com

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Re: John Stephenson, voice of Thundercracker and Kup, passes away at 91 (1686943)
Posted by steve2275 on May 17th, 2015 @ 10:16pm CDT

rest in peace and thank you john stephenson

Re: John Stephenson, voice of Thundercracker and Kup, passes away at 91 (1686949)
Posted by Nemesis Maximo on May 17th, 2015 @ 10:28pm CDT

All this time, I had thought Frank Welker did the voice for Thundercracker in the G1 cartoon.

Ah, well. Rest in peace, Mr. Stephenson.

Re: John Stephenson, voice of Thundercracker and Kup, passes away at 91 (1686952)
Posted by fenrir72 on May 17th, 2015 @ 10:42pm CDT

Thank you for the memories dear sir! :-(

Re: John Stephenson, voice of Thundercracker and Kup, passes away at 91 (1686975)
Posted by Emerje on May 17th, 2015 @ 11:49pm CDT

Man, what a big hit for G1 fans, some really popular voices there. He'll definitely be missed.

Emerje

Re: John Stephenson, voice of Thundercracker and Kup, passes away at 91 (1686977)
Posted by morphobots on May 17th, 2015 @ 11:51pm CDT

Met him at a Botcon in North Carolina years ago. The autograph line was stalled and we chatted for several minutes. He was very honored to see so many people who enjoyed his work. "It's an actor's dream come true," he said.

Re: John Stephenson, voice of Thundercracker and Kup, passes away at 91 (1686980)
Posted by CrankyOldTruck on May 18th, 2015 @ 12:12am CDT

Rest In Peace Mr. Stephenson.

What with Kup being my all time favorite character, John joins Lionel Stander (the actor who portrayed Kup in the '86 Movie) on my list of personal heroes.
A truly great talent among the world of VA's.

Re: John Stephenson, voice of Thundercracker and Kup, passes away at 91 (1686995)
Posted by MemphisR56 on May 18th, 2015 @ 1:42am CDT

so sad to see anotheof the alltime greats go.

til all are one.

Re: John Stephenson, voice of Thundercracker and Kup, passes away at 91 (1686999)
Posted by Black Bumblebee on May 18th, 2015 @ 2:11am CDT

Truly, one of the greats has passed today. His wide array of work speaks for itself. He will be missed.

Re: John Stephenson, voice of Thundercracker and Kup, passes away at 91 (1687000)
Posted by tfstarfire on May 18th, 2015 @ 3:19am CDT

I am really sad about this as I liked Thundercracker as well as A3

Re: John Stephenson, voice of Thundercracker and Kup, passes away at 91 (1687003)
Posted by Ravage XK on May 18th, 2015 @ 5:03am CDT

Just checked his credits and he was involved in so many things I enjoyed. Spacecats for crying out loud!! Galaxy High I remember when it was shown on TVAM. I always thought that Mr Slate was voiced by Mel Blanc.

RIP Mr Stephenson.

Re: John Stephenson, voice of Thundercracker and Kup, passes away at 91 (1687004)
Posted by Coptur on May 18th, 2015 @ 5:05am CDT

Greatly missed always loved the the G1 Thundercracker voice as its quite hard to copy and match right sound to replicate.

John Stephenson's Thundercracker has been my ringtone for about 6 years "Thundercracker to Soundwave, Thundercracker to Soundwave" from More than meets the eye part 1 or 2 (or to me Arrival from Cybertron VHS movie)

you'll be missed good sir and I salute you.

Re: John Stephenson, voice of Thundercracker and Kup, passes away at 91 (1687096)
Posted by SideswipeSkywarp on May 18th, 2015 @ 10:31am CDT

Very sad news. Now all the voice actors for my first Transformers are gone. I bought 4 on a cubs scouts trip in 1984. It was before the cartoon came out. They looked cooler than Go-bots so I wanted all of them. They only had 5 mini cars. I noticed Windcharger changed into a Trans am, I took him first, 2nd was Huffer, 3rd I think was Gears, then a yellow Cliffjumper. I was checking who I didn't have yet and someone took the only yellow Bumblebee. I wish I could have met him at that convention years ago. I read some where that he was supposed to be 93 this year. Someone must be wrong.