Ron Perlman Biography

Ron Perlman
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Ron Perlman

Perlman at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival
Born Ronald Francis Perlman
April 13, 1950 (1950-04-13) (age 59)
Manhattan, New York, U.S.
Occupation Actor
Voice actor
Years active 1981–present
Spouse(s) Opal Perlman (1981-present)

Ronald Francis "Ron" Perlman (born April 13, 1950) is an American television, film and voice over actor. He is known for playing the character Vincent in the television series Beauty and the Beast and the comic book character Hellboy in the film of the same name and its sequel, Hellboy II: The Golden Army.

Contents

Personal life

Perlman was born in Washington Heights, New York. His mother, Dorothy, was a municipal employee, and his father was a jazz drummer and repairman.1 Perlman stated in a 1988 interview that "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."2 Perlman continued to say that this experience is one thing that attracts him to "playing these sorts of deformed people who are very endearing."

He attended George Washington High School and later Lehman College in New York City in 1971, where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Theatre.citation needed Perlman states that he and his father were "very close," and that it was his father, after seeing Perlman in a college production of "Guys and Dolls," who told Perlman "You have to do this...You understand this? You gotta do this." Perlman says, "So, he gave me permission to be an actor...wow."3 Perlman also attended the University of Minnesota, where he graduated with a master's degree in theater arts.

Perlman is Jewish. He has been married to Opal Perlman since February 14, 1981, and he has two children, daughter Blake Amanda (born 1984), and son Brandon Avery (born 1990). Perlman has volunteered as an actor with the Young Storytellers Program.

Career

Perlman made his feature film debut in Jean-Jacques Annaud's film Quest for Fire (1981). After various minor and supporting roles in films and television series, his breakthrough role came when he played Vincent in the TV series Beauty and the Beast, opposite Linda Hamilton from 1987 to 1990. This earned him a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series in 19894 and a large fanbase.citation needed

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 (1986), Romeo is Bleeding (1993), The Adventures of Huck Finn (1993), Police Academy: Mission to Moscow (1994), The Last Supper (1995), The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996), Alien Resurrection (1997), Enemy at the Gates (2001), Blade II and Star Trek Nemesis (both 2002) and two Stephen King story-to-movie adaptations, Sleepwalkers and Desperation. His appearances in television series include Highlander: The Series, The Outer Limits and The Magnificent Seven.

He played his first leading film role in 1995, when he played the gargantuan oaf "One" in Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro's The City of Lost Children. He got another leading film role in 2004 when he played the title role in the comic book adaptation Hellboy. The director Guillermo del Toro, who worked with him previously on Cronos and Blade II, had to fight to secure the role, as the studio wanted someone more well-known such as Vin Dieselcitation needed. Perlman reprised his role as Hellboy in Hellboy II: The Golden Army, released on July 11, 2008.

In 2008, Perlman joined the cast of the TV show Sons of Anarchy on FX. He plays Clay Morrow, the president of the motorcycle gang and stepfather of the main character. In 2008 Perlman advertised Stella Artois beer. This commercial, which was called "Devil's Island," 5 won a Silver Award at the 2003 British Advertising Awards. 6 7

Roles that required make-up

Ron Perlman as Hellboy.

He is known for playing roles which require make-up, some to the point where his entire body is covered or his face requires full facial prosthetics. Some examples include The Name of the Rose where he plays a disfigured hunchback, Beauty and The Beast, where he plays Vincent, a man with the face of a half-man half-lion-like beast, The Island of Dr. Moreau where he plays a half man/half animal and the Hellboy films where he plays a demon. He even gave his Beauty and The Beast co-star Armin Shimerman advice when Shimerman was going to be in full-facial prosthetics for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. He also might play the role of the character "Larson" for Guillermo del Toro's film adaptation of the H. P. Lovecraft story At the Mountains of Madness. Del Toro, in a chat session discussing his plans for The Hobbit movies, has indicated that Perlman will have some role in the films.8

Voice-over work

Perlman also has a successful career as a voice actor in addition to his onscreen acting, having portrayed characters in numerous video games and animated series. These include Vice Principal Lancer in Danny Phantom, Kurtis Stryker in Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm, Justice in Afro Samurai and various characters in DC Comics based series such as the villainous Slade, a version of DC character Deathstroke the Terminator, in the Teen Titans animated series, Clayface in Batman: The Animated Series, Jax-Ur in Superman: The Animated Series, Orion in Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, Killer Croc, Rumor, and at one point even Bane in The Batman.

His video game credits include Lord Terrence Hood, Fleet Admiral in command of Earth's space defences against the Covenant in the games Halo 2 and Halo 3, Jagger Valance in The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, and Batman in Justice League Heroes. He is well-known by Fallout fans for narrating the introductory movies in the series, including uttering the famous phrase "War. War never changes." in each installment. He also voices supporting character Slade in the 2008 Turok game.

Perlman is soon to be the voice of Conan the Barbarian in the upcoming animated film of Robert E. Howard's Red Nails. He provides the voice to the same character in the video game Conan.

Filmography

Film

Television

Voice work

References

 This article uses bare URLs. Please help improve this article by turning bare URLs into proper citations containing all of the information on the referenced work's title, date, publisher, publication, and author, so that the article remains verifiable in the future. (There are several templates available that can help to make formatting such citations simple.)
This page may also be able to help find problematic links. (September 2009)
  1. ^ Ron Perlman Biography (1950-)
  2. ^ "Hour Magazine - on Ron Perlman's success on the series Beauty & The Beast". YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfcT1j1tj8A. 
  3. ^ "Ron Perlman on Becoming an Actor". Glass Eye Pix. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62YzvoOss-c. 
  4. ^ Golden Globe Awards official website, last accessed October 22, 2007.
  5. ^ "Stella Artois beer commercial entitled Devil's Island". YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OKw3_XTvro. 
  6. ^ "British Advertising Awards - Silver Honours 2003". http://www.creativecircle.co.uk/2003/silverhonours.htm. 
  7. ^ "Ron Perlman stars in an British Advertising Award winning Stella Artois beer commercial". http://www.perlmanpages.com/tvseries/stella1.htm. 
  8. ^ Hobbit chat with Peter Jackson and G. del Toro peppered with big news (and little details about both films) | Hobbit Movie News and Rumors | TheOneRing.net | The Hobbit and L...

External links

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Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama

Mike Connors (1969) · Peter Graves (1970) · Robert Young (1971) · Peter Falk (1972) · James Stewart (1973) · Telly Savalas (1974) · Robert Blake/Telly Savalas (1975) · Richard Jordan (1976) · Edward Asner (1977) · Michael Moriarty (1978) · Edward Asner (1979) · Richard Chamberlain (1980) · Daniel J. Travanti (1981) · John Forsythe (1982) · John Forsythe (1983) · Tom Selleck (1984) · Don Johnson (1985) · Edward Woodward (1986) · Richard Kiley (1987) · Ron Perlman (1988) · Ken Wahl (1989)

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