What is Frank Welker's Net Worth and Salary?
Frank Welker is an American voice actor who has a net worth of $10 million. Frank Welker has amassed over 860 credits in television, film, and video games across more than six decades. He is best known as the voice of Fred Jones in the "Scooby-Doo" franchise beginning in 1969, and as Scooby-Doo himself starting in 2002. Among his plethora of other credits, Welker has voiced characters in such popular media franchises as "Transformers," "The Smurfs," "Garfield," "Animaniacs," and "Curious George."
Early Life and Education
Frank Welker was born on March 12, 1946 in Denver, Colorado to Lillian and mining engineer Merrill. He went to Santa Monica College as a young adult.
Scooby-Doo Breakthrough
After beginning his career as a stand-up comic in 1967, Welker broke into voice acting by the end of the decade. His first major voice role was as Fred Jones in the Hanna-Barbera animated television series "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!," which ran from 1969 to 1970. He went on to voice Fred in almost every further entry in the "Scooby-Doo" animated franchise, including all the various television series and movies. Later, in 2002, Welker began voicing Scooby-Doo himself.
Further Television Voice Acting
Following his breakthrough with "Scooby-Doo," Welker lent his voice to several other Hanna-Barbera television shows, including "Super Friends," "Jabberjaw," "Dynomutt, Dog Wonder," and "The New Fred and Barney Show." In 1978, he voiced the titular character on the Ruby-Spears cartoon series "Fangface." Around that time, Welker also voiced numerous characters on "The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse and Heckle & Jeckle," "Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels," and "The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show."
Throughout the 80s and 90s, Welker became even more prolific as a voice actor. He played multiple characters on such shows as "The Smurfs," "The Transformers," "Inspector Gadget," "Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends," "G.I. Joe," "The Real Ghostbusters," "DuckTales," "Garfield and Friends," and "Captain Planet and the Planeteers." Welker also voiced various animal characters on Matt Groening's "The Simpsons" and "Futurama," such as Santa's Little Helper and Nibbler. Among his other 90s credits are "Animaniacs," "Tiny Toon Adventures," "Bobby's World," "Capitol Critters," "Batman: The Animated Series," "Pinky and the Brain," and "Dexter's Laboratory." Later on, in the 21st century, Welker had major voice roles on "The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius," "Dave the Barbarian," "Curious George," "The Garfield Show," "Bubble Guppies," "The Tom and Jerry Show," and "Tales of Arcadia," among a surfeit of other series.
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Film Voice Acting
On the big screen, Welker has lent his voice to both live-action and animated films. His first credit was in Joel Schumacher's 1981 science-fiction comedy "The Incredible Shrinking Woman." Also that year, Welker voiced the Capuchin monkey in Steven Spielberg's "Raiders of the Lost Ark." Over the rest of the decade, he voiced such characters as the titular killer dog in "Cujo"; various gremlins in "Gremlins"; Torok in "Troll"; various Transformers in "The Transformers: The Movie"; and the gopher in "Caddyshack II." In the 90s, Welker's credits include "The Rescuers Down Under," "Hudson Hawk," "Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey," "Aladdin," "Super Mario Bros.," "A Goofy Movie," "Mars Attacks!," "Anaconda," and "Mulan."
Welker continued to voice many animal characters in the new millennium, including in such films as "The Emperor's New Groove," "The Powerpuff Girls Movie," "Curious George," and "The Ant Bully." He also voiced multiple characters in the live-action "Transformers" films directed by Michael Bay, and voiced Azrael in the live-action "Smurfs" films.
(Photo by David Livingston/Getty Images)
Video Game Voice Acting
Welker has lent his vocal talents to the world of video games, as well. Notably, he has voiced both Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and the Shadow Blot in Disney's platform game "Epic Mickey" and the sequel "Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two." Welker's other notable video game voice-acting credits have included "StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm" and the "Baldur's Gate" series, in which he voices the mad mage Xzar. He has also voiced Megatron in various "Transformers" games.
Live-Action Roles
Although primarily a voice actor, Welker has appeared in the flesh in a handful of films and television series. He first appeared on camera in the 1969 Elvis Presley vehicle "The Trouble with Girls." Shortly after that, Welker could be seen in the Disney science-fiction comedy "The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes"; he reprised his role in the sequel "Now You See Him, Now You Don't" a few years later. His other big-screen live-action credits include 1971's "How to Frame a Figg" and 2009's "The Informant!"
On television, Welker made on-camera appearances on such shows as "The Partridge Family," "The Don Knotts Show," "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In," and "The Smothers Brothers Show." He also played the "Burger Thing" in a series of commercials for Burger King in the 70s and 80s.
Real Estate
In 2013 Frank paid $217,000 for a property in Agoura Hills, California. Today the home is worth approximately $2 million.
