Peter Renaday, Voice Actor And Original 'TMNT' Splinter, Dead At 89
The actor with numerous Disney and DreamWorks credits among hundreds was found unresponsive in his home
Peter Renaday, the voice of Hamato Yoshi aka Splinter in the original 1987-1996 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series and seemingly the most reliable Abraham Lincoln voice in the business, has died at the age of 89.
According to law enforcement, a welfare check was done as requested at Peter’s Burbank home Sunday and that’s when he was found dead inside. The death appears to be natural, or at least, as natural as no air conditioning in the midst of a Los Angeles heat wave can be, according to Peter's niece, Mindy Zachary. Said cause of death is unclear, but temperatures inside his home in the Valley had reached the 90s, so it’s believed heat stroke was possible, but the family feels Renaday’s death isn’t so foul it would need further investigation, and thus isn’t being handled as a medical examiner case.
Renaday’s first co-star to express public condolences was Townsend Coleman, the voice of Michelangelo, who wrote “Folks, I’m devastated this morning to learn of the passing yesterday of our dear sensei, Peter Renaday. Pete was one of the most genuine, salt of the earth people I have ever known and I will miss him dearly.” He wrote about visiting him just a month ago, describing “he was as vibrant as ever, at 89 just as endearingly silly, smart and talented as I’ve always known him to be.” He finished “Ugh, this is hard… a Disney legend and our dear Master Splinter— rest well, my sweet friend.😔🙏❤️” Renaday is credited with reprising the role for the non-musical spoken parts of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Coming Out of Their Shells Tour. Renaday was the only surviving main cast member of the original TMNT series not to have any role, whether reprisal or not, in the first Nickelodeon animated series iteration of the franchise.
Renaday was born Pierre Renoudet on June 9, 1935, in New Iberia, Louisiana. He was married to Florence “Flo” June Daniel, an executive secretary for 35 years in the music department of Walt Disney Studios from 1979 until her death on February 18, 2011. She was a featured soprano vocalist on the Disneyland Records 1973 album The Sounds of Christmas, which also included vocal work by her eventual husband, with whom she’d go by Florence Renoudet. He had nearly 200 other film and TV credits, a mix of both animated and live-action roles, including performances in such Disney films as The Aristocats, The Rescuers, The Black Cauldron, The Love Bug, The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, The Barefoot Executive and The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again. He can be heard elsewhere as Grapple in The Transformers. His final film or television role seems to be Sir George, the original Forever Knight from several late episodes of Ben 10: Ultimate Alien.
His work with Disney even extends to the parks, voicing the animatronic Abraham Lincoln at Walt Disney World’s Hall of Presidents. That work as Lincoln led to him voicing the 16th President in Bebe’s Kids, Animaniacs, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Evil Con Carne, and Batman: The Brave and the Bold. He’s voiced soldiers in Antz, Mulan, and The Prince of Egypt, and guards in The Road to El Dorado and Shrek, He also voiced the animatronic bear characters Henry the M.C. and Max the Deer at Disney World’s original Country Bear Jamboree, and was apparently used as a PeopleMover narrator for 15 years. He was also Captain Nemo for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Submarine Voyage. Information on his other survivors has yet to be made available.
Great voice actors are rare, and to lose another great one hurts.