Ron Perlman

Tangled

Adventure Time

Book of Life

Beauty and the Beast

Hellboy

Sons of Anarchy

Nino in Drive

Pacific Rim

**Ronald "Ron" Perlman** (born April 13, 1950) is an American television, film and voice actor. He played the roles of Vincent on the CBS series *Beauty and the Beast* (1987–90), for which he won a Golden Globe Award, Angel de la Guardia in *Cronos* (1993), the title character in *Hellboy* (2004) and its sequel *Hellboy II: The Golden Army* (2008), Clay Morrow on the FX series *Sons of Anarchy* (2008–13), Nino in *Drive* (2011) and Hannibal Chau in *Pacific Rim* (2013).

Perlman is also known for his voice-work as Clayface in the DC Animated Universe, the narrator of the *Fallout* series (1997–present), Slade on *Teen Titans* (2003–06), the Stabbington brothers in *Tangled* (2010), the Lich on *Adventure Time* (2011–17) and Xibalba in the film *The Book of Life* (2014).

## Early life

Ronald Perlman[1] was born in Washington Heights, New York. His mother, Dorothy (*née* Rosen; 1921–2018), was a municipal employee, and his father, Bertram "Bert" Perlman, (1919–1969) was a jazz drummer and television repairman.[2][3] 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 cited this experience as one thing that attracts him to roles where he portrays "these sorts of deformed people who are very endearing." He has said 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 him he "had to" pursue a career as an actor. Perlman later said that his father essentially "gave [him] permission to be an actor". He 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.

## Career

### Film and television

Perlman at the 41st Primetime Emmy Awards in September 1989
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* (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 for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series in 1989.[9]

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 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*.[10]

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",[11] won a Silver Award at the 2003 British Advertising Awards.[12][13] 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*, 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 would also play Wes Chandler in the second and third seasons of *StartUp* in 2017–18.

### 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*, 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*, 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.[15] 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; An ex-boxer who's desperate acts of violence to maintain prominence lead to imprisonment in a pocket dimension infested with hellacious creatures and lovecraftian horror themes.

## Personal life

Perlman married his wife, jewelry designer, Opal, on February 14, 1981. They have two children: daughter Blake Amanda Perlman (born 1984) and son Brandon Avery Perlman (born 1987). His son produces electronic music under the stage name Delroy Edwards.[16] They separated in May 2019 and Perlman later filed for divorce.

Perlman described himself as a lifelong Democrat in November 2016.[18]

Perlman has been a vocal critic of U.S. President Donald Trump. On October 29, 2016 Perlman tweeted "Ya hear that donnie? Crooked as a muthafucka!" in reference to another tweet about the Hillary Clinton email controversy. Subsequently, on June 25, 2018 Perlman tweeted claiming that he 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." These tweets have inspired the "Lil Donnie" meme wherein internet users photoshop fictitious tweets of Perlman doing disgusting and absurd acts in order to get back at "Lil Donnie.