Ronald Perlman (born April 13, 1950) is an American actor. His credits include the roles of Amoukar in ''
Quest for Fire'' (1981), Salvatore in ''
The Name of the Rose
''The Name of the Rose'' ( it, Il nome della rosa ) is the 1980 debut novel by Italian author Umberto Eco. It is a historical murder mystery set in an Italian monastery in the year 1327, and an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in ficti ...
'' (1986), Vincent in the television series ''
Beauty and the Beast'' (1987–1990), for which he won a
Golden Globe Award
The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of ...
, One in ''
The City of Lost Children
''The City of Lost Children'' (french: La Cité des enfants perdus) is a 1995 science fantasy film directed by Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet, written by Jeunet and Gilles Adrien, and starring Ron Perlman. An international co-production of c ...
'' (1995), Johner in ''
Alien Resurrection'' (1997),
Hellboy
Hellboy is a fictional superhero created by writer-artist Mike Mignola. The character first appeared in ''San Diego Comic-Con Comics'' #2 (August 1993), and has since appeared in various eponymous miniseries, one-shots and intercompany crossover ...
in both ''
Hellboy
Hellboy is a fictional superhero created by writer-artist Mike Mignola. The character first appeared in ''San Diego Comic-Con Comics'' #2 (August 1993), and has since appeared in various eponymous miniseries, one-shots and intercompany crossover ...
'' (2004) and its sequel ''
Hellboy II: The Golden Army'' (2008),
Clay Morrow on the television series ''
Sons of Anarchy'' (2008–2013), Nino in ''
Drive
Drive or The Drive may refer to:
Motoring
* Driving, the act of controlling a vehicle
* Road trip, a journey on roads
Roadways
Roadways called "drives" may include:
* Driveway, a private road for local access to structures, abbreviated "drive"
* ...
'' (2011) and Benedict Drask in ''
Don't Look Up'' (2021).
Perlman is also known as a collaborator of ''Hellboy'' director
Guillermo del Toro, having roles in the del Toro films ''
Cronos'' (1993), ''
Blade II
''Blade II'' is a 2002 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Blade, directed by Guillermo del Toro and written by David S. Goyer. A sequel to '' Blade'' (1998), it is the second installment in the ''Blade'' franchise, f ...
'' (2002), ''
Pacific Rim'' (2013) and ''
Nightmare Alley'' (2021). His
voice-over
Voice-over (also known as off-camera or off-stage commentary) is a production technique where a voice—that is not part of the narrative (non- diegetic)—is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, theatre, or other presentation ...
work includes the narrator of the post-apocalyptic game series ''
Fallout
Nuclear fallout is the residual radioactive material propelled into the upper atmosphere following a nuclear blast, so called because it "falls out" of the sky after the explosion and the shock wave has passed. It commonly refers to the radioac ...
'' (1997–present),
Clayface
Clayface is an alias used by several supervillains appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Most incarnations of the character possess clay-like bodies and shapeshifting abilities, and all of them have been depicted as List of Bat ...
in the
DC Animated Universe,
Slade in ''
Teen Titans
The Teen Titans are a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, frequently in eponymous monthly series. As the group's name indicates, the members are teenage superheroes, many of whom have acted as sidekicks to ...
'' (2003–2006), Mr. Lancer in ''
Danny Phantom'' (2004–2007), Lord Hood in the video games ''
Halo 2'' (2004) and ''
Halo 3'' (2007), the
Stabbington brothers
The following is a list of characters from the franchise ''Tangled'' which includes the 2010 film of the same name, ''Tangled Ever After'' (2012), '' Tangled: Before Ever After'' (2017), as well as the 2017-2020 television series ''Rapunzel's Ta ...
in ''
Tangled'' (2010), The Lich in ''
Adventure Time
''Adventure Time'' is an American fantasy animated television series created by Pendleton Ward for Cartoon Network and distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television. The series follows the adventures of a boy named Finn (Jeremy Shada) and ...
'' (2011–2017), Xibalba in ''
The Book of Life'' (2014) and Optimus Primal in both the ''
Transformers: Power of the Primes'' (2018) animated series, and the forthcoming film ''
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts'' (2023).
Early life
Ronald Perlman
was born on April 13, 1950 in
Washington Heights, New York City. His mother, Dorothy (née Rosen; 1921–2018), was a municipal employee, and his father, Bertram "Bert" Perlman (1919–1969), was a
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...
drummer and television repairman.
His family is
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
, originally from Hungary and Poland, and Perlman had a
Bar Mitzvah ceremony.
Perlman said in 1988, "It was not a bad childhood but I had a perception of myself that was... I was terribly overweight as a young kid, and it was sort of a low
self image
The self is an individual as the object of that individual’s own reflective consciousness. Since the ''self'' is a reference by a subject to the same subject, this reference is necessarily subjective. The sense of having a self—or ''selfhoo ...
." He stated this experience is something that attracts him to roles where he portrays "these sorts of deformed people who are very endearing."
Perlman had a "very close" relationship with his father, who convinced his son he "had to" pursue a career as an actor after seeing him perform in a college production of ''
Guys and Dolls
''Guys and Dolls'' is a musical with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows. It is based on " The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" (1933) and "Blood Pressure", which are two short stories by Damon Runyon, and also b ...
''.
He graduated from
George Washington High School in 1967 and
Lehman College in 1971. He later attended the
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...
where he graduated with a
master's degree
A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice. in theater arts in 1973.
Career
Film and television
Perlman started his career as a stage actor, appearing in various productions, and made his feature film debut in
Jean-Jacques Annaud's film ''
Quest for Fire'' (1981). Annaud later revealed that when he contacted Perlman to ask him about playing Salvatore in ''
The Name of the Rose
''The Name of the Rose'' ( it, Il nome della rosa ) is the 1980 debut novel by Italian author Umberto Eco. It is a historical murder mystery set in an Italian monastery in the year 1327, and an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in ficti ...
'' (1986), Perlman was thinking of abandoning his career. After various minor and supporting roles in films and television series, his breakthrough role came when he played Vincent on the television series ''
Beauty and the Beast'', opposite
Linda Hamilton, from 1987 to 1990. This earned him a
Golden Globe Award
The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of ...
for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series in 1989.
He went on to play roles in many films and television series throughout the 1980s and 1990s as well as the 2000s. His most notable film appearances were in films such as ''
The Name of the Rose
''The Name of the Rose'' ( it, Il nome della rosa ) is the 1980 debut novel by Italian author Umberto Eco. It is a historical murder mystery set in an Italian monastery in the year 1327, and an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in ficti ...
'' (1986), ''
Romeo is Bleeding'' (1993), ''
The Adventures of Huck Finn
''Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' or as it is known in more recent editions, ''The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'', is a novel by American author Mark Twain, which was first published in the United Kingdom in December 1884 and in the United St ...
'' (1993), ''
Police Academy: Mission to Moscow'' (1994), ''
The Last Supper
Image:The Last Supper - Leonardo Da Vinci - High Resolution 32x16.jpg, 400px, alt=''The Last Supper'' by Leonardo da Vinci - Clickable Image, Depictions of the Last Supper in Christian art have been undertaken by artistic masters for centuries, ...
'' (1995), ''
The Island of Dr. Moreau'' (1996), ''
Alien Resurrection'' (1997), ''
Enemy at the Gates'' (2001), ''
Blade II
''Blade II'' is a 2002 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Blade, directed by Guillermo del Toro and written by David S. Goyer. A sequel to '' Blade'' (1998), it is the second installment in the ''Blade'' franchise, f ...
'' and ''
Star Trek: Nemesis'' (both 2002) and two
Stephen King adaptations, ''
Sleepwalkers'' and ''
Desperation''. His appearances on television series include ''
Highlander: The Series'', ''
The Outer Limits'', ''
The Magnificent Seven'', and the
Amazon
Amazon most often refers to:
* Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology
* Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin
* Amazon River, in South America
* Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...
series ''
Hand of God''.
He played his first leading film role in 1995, when he played "One" in
Jean-Pierre Jeunet and
Marc Caro's French-language ''
The City of Lost Children
''The City of Lost Children'' (french: La Cité des enfants perdus) is a 1995 science fantasy film directed by Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet, written by Jeunet and Gilles Adrien, and starring Ron Perlman. An international co-production of c ...
''. In 2003, Perlman starred in a commercial for
Stella Artois beer. This commercial, which was called "Devil's Island", won a Silver Award at the 2003 British Advertising Awards. He got another leading film role in 2004 when he played the title role in the
comic book
A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...
adaptation ''
Hellboy
Hellboy is a fictional superhero created by writer-artist Mike Mignola. The character first appeared in ''San Diego Comic-Con Comics'' #2 (August 1993), and has since appeared in various eponymous miniseries, one-shots and intercompany crossover ...
''. Perlman reprised his role as Hellboy in the straight to DVD animated features ''Hellboy: Sword of Storms'' (2006) and ''Hellboy: Blood and Iron'' (2007) as well as ''
Hellboy II: The Golden Army'', released on July 11, 2008.
In 2008, Perlman joined the cast of the television series ''
Sons of Anarchy'' on
FX playing
Clay Morrow, the national president of the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club. He also played Wes Chandler in the second and third seasons of ''
StartUp'' in 2017–18.
In 2022 Perlman starred in
Steven Brand's noir thriller ''Joe Baby'' alongside
Dichen Lachman
Dichen Lachman (; born 22 February 1982) is an Australian actress. She earned recognition starring as Katya Kinski in the soap opera ''Neighbours'' (2005–2007) and as Sierra in Joss Whedon's science fiction drama series ''Dollhouse'' (2009� ...
,
Willa Fitzgerald and
Harvey Keitel.
Voice-over work
Perlman also has a successful career as a voice actor. He has portrayed characters in numerous video games and animated series, and done voice-over work for television commercials. These include Casper High English teacher and vice-principal
Mr. Lancer in ''
Danny Phantom'', "Mickey Kaline" in ''
Hey Arnold
''Hey Arnold!'' is an American animated comedy television series created by Craig Bartlett. It originally aired on Nickelodeon from October 7, 1996, to June 8, 2004. The show centers on fourth grader Arnold Shortman, who lives with his grandpare ...
'', The Lich in ''
Adventure Time
''Adventure Time'' is an American fantasy animated television series created by Pendleton Ward for Cartoon Network and distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television. The series follows the adventures of a boy named Finn (Jeremy Shada) and ...
'',
Kurtis Stryker in ''
Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm'', Justice in ''
Afro Samurai
is a Japanese ''seinen'' ''dōjinshi'' manga series written and illustrated by manga artist Takashi Okazaki. It was originally serialized irregularly in the avant-garde ''dōjinshi'' manga magazine '' Nou Nou Hau'' from November 1998 to Se ...
'' and various characters in
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. ( doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery.
DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with the ...
based series such as the villainous Slade, a version of DC character
Deathstroke
Deathstroke (Slade Joseph Wilson) is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez, the character debuted in ''The New Teen Titans'' #2 in December 1980 as Deathstroke th ...
in the ''
Teen Titans
The Teen Titans are a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, frequently in eponymous monthly series. As the group's name indicates, the members are teenage superheroes, many of whom have acted as sidekicks to ...
'' animated series and again in ''
Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox'',
Clayface
Clayface is an alias used by several supervillains appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Most incarnations of the character possess clay-like bodies and shapeshifting abilities, and all of them have been depicted as List of Bat ...
in ''
Batman: The Animated Series'' and ''
The New Batman Adventures'',
Jax-Ur in ''
Superman: The Animated Series'',
Orion in ''
Justice League'' and ''
Justice League Unlimited
''Justice League Unlimited'' (''JLU'') is a 2004–2006 American superhero animated television series that was produced by Warner Bros. Animation and aired on Cartoon Network. Featuring a wide array of superheroes from the DC Comics univers ...
'' (the former in which he reprised his role as Clayface as well as voice Orion), Sozin in ''
Avatar: The Last Airbender'', several villains (
Killer Croc
Killer Croc is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, commonly as an adversary of the superhero Batman. The character belongs to the collective of adversaries that make up Batman's rogues gallery. Originally a si ...
,
Rumor
A rumor (American English), or rumour (British English; see spelling differences; derived from Latin:rumorem - noise), is "a tall tale of explanations of events circulating from person to person and pertaining to an object, event, or issue in p ...
and
Bane
Bane may refer to:
Fictional characters
* Bane (DC Comics), an adversary of Batman
* Bane (''Harry Potter''), a centaur in the ''Harry Potter'' series
* Bane (''The Matrix''), a character in the ''Matrix'' film trilogy
* Bane the Druid, a Gua ...
) in ''
The Batman
Batman is a fictional superhero appearing in comic books published by DC Comics.
Batman or The Batman may also refer to:
Art, entertainment, and media
Characters
* Batman (Terry McGinnis)
* Batman (Thomas Wayne)
* Batman (Earth-Two)
* Bat ...
'',
Doctor Double X in ''
Batman: The Brave and the Bold'', and
Sinestro
Thaal Sinestro () (or simply Sinestro) is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, particularly those featuring Green Lantern. Sinestro is a former Green Lantern Corps member who was dishonorably discharged for abu ...
in ''
Green Lantern: The Animated Series. ''In addition, he served as the narrator for ''
1000 Ways To Die.''
His video game credits include Terrence Hood in the games ''
Halo 2'' and ''
Halo 3'', Jagger Valance in ''
The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay'', and
Batman
Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on March 30, 1939. I ...
in ''
Justice League Heroes''. He is well known by ''
Fallout
Nuclear fallout is the residual radioactive material propelled into the upper atmosphere following a nuclear blast, so called because it "falls out" of the sky after the explosion and the shock wave has passed. It commonly refers to the radioac ...
'' fans for narrating the introductory movies in the series, including uttering the famous phrase "War. War never changes." He also voices "Slade" in the 2008 ''
Turok'' game, and
Emil Blonsky / Abomination in ''
Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction'', ''
Conan'' for the PS3 and Xbox 360, and voices the fast-talking Mayor Hoodoo Brown in the
Neversoft game ''
Gun''. He also made an appearance in ''
Payday 2'' as "Rust", part of the "Biker Pack" DLC. In ''
Call of Duty: Black Ops III'' (2016), Perlman offered his likeness and voice to one of the lead playable characters in the game's popular Zombies mode.
Perlman also does narration in the
UFC's cold open promos for pay-per-view events.
Personal life
Perlman married Opal, a jewelry designer, on February 14, 1981.
They separated in May 2019 and Perlman later filed for divorce. On June 28, 2022 it was announced that Perlman married Allison Dunbar in Italy after three years of dating. His son produces electronic music under the stage name
Delroy Edwards.
Perlman described himself as a lifelong
Democrat in November 2016. He has been a vocal critic of former U.S. President
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...
.
On June 25, 2018, Perlman claimed that he intentionally urinated on his hand prior to shaking
Harvey Weinstein's hand followed by the message "I think about that every time lil Donnie opens up his KFC." The story gained notoriety and gave birth to the "Lil Donnie"
internet meme
An Internet meme, commonly known simply as a meme ( ), is an idea, behavior, style, or image that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. What is considered a meme may vary across different communities on the Internet ...
format, a series of fake tweets where Perlman would account subjecting himself to bizarre and disgusting acts for the purpose of infuriating Trump.
On November 9, 2016, Perlman announced via Facebook his intention to run for U.S. President in the
2020 election. In January 2019, he endorsed the candidacy of
Kamala Harris.
Filmography
Books
References
External links
*
*
*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Perlman, Ron
1950 births
20th-century American Jews
20th-century American male actors
21st-century American male actors
21st-century American Jews
American Ashkenazi Jews
American male film actors
American male television actors
American male video game actors
American male voice actors
American people of Hungarian-Jewish descent
American people of Polish-Jewish descent
Audiobook narrators
Best Drama Actor Golden Globe (television) winners
California Democrats
Comedians from New York City
Jewish American male actors
Jewish American male comedians
Lehman College alumni
Living people
Male actors from New York City
New York (state) Democrats
People from Washington Heights, Manhattan
University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts alumni