Ron Perlman

Ronald N. 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 (1986), Vincent in the television series Beauty and the Beast (1987–1990), for which he won a Golden Globe Award, One in The City of Lost Children (1995), Johner in Alien Resurrection (1997), Koulikov in Enemy at the Gates (2001), Hellboy in both Hellboy (2004) and its sequel Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008), Clay Morrow in the television series Sons of Anarchy (2008–2013), Nino in Drive (2011) and Benedict Drask in Don't Look Up (2021). As a frequent collaborator of Hellboy director Guillermo del Toro, he has had roles in the del Toro films Cronos (1993), Blade II (2002), Pacific Rim (2013), Nightmare Alley (2021), and Pinocchio (2022).

Perlman has also had a prolific career as a voice actor, including the narrator of the post-apocalyptic game series Fallout (1997–present), Clayface in the DC Animated Universe (1992–2003), Slade in Teen Titans (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 in Tangled (2010), The Lich in Adventure Time (2011–2017) and its spinoff Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake (2023), Xibalba in The Book of Life (2014), and Optimus Primal in both the Transformers: Power of the Primes (2018) animated series and the film Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (2023).

Early life and education
Ronald N. Perlman was born on April 13, 1950, in Washington Heights, New York City. His mother, Dorothy (née Rosen), was a municipal employee, and his father, Bertram "Bert" Perlman, was a jazz drummer and television repairman. His family is Jewish, 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." 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.

Perlman graduated from George Washington High School in 1967 and Lehman College in 1971. He later attended the University of Minnesota, where he graduated with a master's degree in theater arts in 1973.

Film and television
Perlman started his career as a stage actor in 1975 and made his television debut in Ryan's Hope in 1979. He 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 (1986), Perlman was thinking of abandoning his career. After various minor and supporting roles in film and television, he got his breakthrough leading role as Vincent on the television series Beauty and the Beast, opposite Linda Hamilton, from 1987 to 1990. This earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series in 1989.

He went on to play supporting roles in many films and television series throughout the 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 adaptations, Sleepwalkers and Desperation. His appearances on television series include Highlander: The Series, The Outer Limits, The Magnificent Seven, and the Amazon 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. 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 adaptation Hellboy. 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 (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, Willa Fitzgerald and Harvey Keitel.

In 2023, Perlman starred in the Western thriller Cottonmouth, which is set for release in 2024.

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!, The Lich in Adventure Time, 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 in the Teen Titans animated series and again in Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, Clayface 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 (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, Rumor and Bane) in The Batman, Doctor Double X in Batman: The Brave and the Bold, and Sinestro 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 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." 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 has also provided narration for a number of audiobooks, including City of Thieves by David Benioff. Perlman also does narration in the UFC's cold open promos for pay-per-view events.

Personal life
Perlman married Opal Stone, an Afro-Jamaican jewelry designer, on Valentine's Day 1981 and they had two children together: daughter Blake Amanda (b. 1984) and son Brandon Avery (b. 1990). They separated in May 2019 and Perlman later filed for divorce. In 2022, Perlman married his StartUp co-star Allison Dunbar in Italy after three years of dating. His son Brandon produces electronic music under the stage name Delroy Edwards.

Perlman is a lifelong Democrat. He has been a vocal critic of former U.S. President Donald Trump.

In 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."

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. Perlman spoke in support of the 2023 SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes and criticized an executive from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers who said that the association should delay negotiations with striking workers until they began to lose their homes.