Ron Perlman facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Ron Perlman
Perlman in 2022
Born	Ronald Perlman (1950-04-13) April 13, 1950 (age 74) Manhattan, New York, U.S.
Education	Lehman College (BA) University of Minnesota (MFA)
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1975–present
Works	Full list
Spouse(s)	Opal Stone ​ ​ (m. 1981; div. 2019)​ Allison Dunbar ​ (m. 2022)​
Children	2, including Delroy Edwards

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 (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), 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 known 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

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. 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.

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.

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, 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, Willa Fitzgerald and Harvey Keitel.

Voice-over work

Perlman at the San Diego Comic Con in July 2011

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 February 14, 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. On June 28, 2022, it was announced that 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 described himself as a lifelong Democrat in November 2016. He has been a vocal critic of former U.S. President Donald 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. 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.

Filmography

Live-action roles

Film

Key

Denotes works that have not yet been released

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1981	Quest for Fire	Amoukar	Nominated—Genie Award for Best Performance by a Foreign Actor
1984	The Ice Pirates	Zeno
1986	The Name of the Rose	Salvatore
1992	Sleepwalkers	Captain Soames
1993	Cronos	Angel de la Guardia
	Romeo Is Bleeding	Jack's attorney
	When the Bough Breaks	Dr. Douglas Eben
	The Adventures of Huck Finn
1994	Double Exposure	John McClure
	Police Academy: Mission to Moscow	Konstantine Konali
	Sensation	Detective Pantella
1995	The City of Lost Children	One
	Fluke	Sylvester
	The Last Supper	Norman Arbuthnot
1996	The Island of Dr. Moreau	Sayer of the Law
1997	Prince Valiant	Boltar
	Tinseltown	Cliff
	Alien Resurrection	Johner
	The Protector	Dr. Ramsey Krago
1998	I Woke Up Early the Day I Died	Cemetery Caretaker
	Frogs for Snakes	Gascone
	Betty	Donnie Shank
1999	Happy, Texas	Marshal Nalhober
2000	The King's Guard	Lord Morton
	Price of Glory	Nick Everson
	Bread and Roses	Himself	Uncredited cameo
	Stroke	Schumaker
2001	Down	Mitchell
	Enemy at the Gates	Koulikov
2002	Blade II	Dieter Reinhardt
	Night Class	Morgan
	Crime and Punishment	Dusharo
	Star Trek: Nemesis	Reman Viceroy
	Shakedown	Christopher 'St. Joy' Bellows	Direct-to-DVD
2003	Boys on the Run	Captain
	Rats	Dr. William Winslow
	Hoodlum & Son	'Ugly' Jim McCrae
	Absolon	Murchison
	Two Soldiers	Colonel McKellog	Short film
	Looney Tunes: Back in Action	Acme VP of Never Learning
2004	Comic Book: The Movie	Himself	Cameo Direct-to-DVD
	Hellboy	Hellboy
	Quiet Kill	Detective Sergeant Perry
2005	The Second Front	General von Binding
	Missing in America	Red
2006	Local Color	Curtis Sunday
	How to Go Out on a Date in Queens	Vito
	The Last Winter	Ed Pollack	Nominated—Gotham Independent Film Award for Best Ensemble Cast
	Five Girls	Father Drake
2007	In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale	Norick
2008	Uncross the Stars	Bobby Walden
	Hellboy II: The Golden Army	Hellboy	Nominated—Scream Award for Best Fantasy Actor Nominated—Scream Award for Best Superhero
	Outlander	Gunnar
	Mutant Chronicles	Brother Samuel
2009	The Devil's Tomb	Wesley
	Dark Country	Deputy Thompson	Direct-to-DVD
	I Sell The Dead	Father Duffy
	The Job	Jim
2010	Killer by Nature	Dr. Julian
	Acts of Violence	Priest Bill
	Bunraku	Nicola
	Season of the Witch	Felson
2011	Conan the Barbarian	Corin
	Drive	Nino
	Elwood	Louie the Jaw	Short film; also executive producer
2012	The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption	Horus	Direct-to-DVD
	Bad ...	Mayor Williams
	The Punisher: Dirty Laundry	Big Mike	Short film
	Crave	Pete
	3,2,1... Frankie Go Boom	Phil
2013	Pacific Rim	Hannibal Chau
2014	The Virginian	Judge Henry	Direct-to-DVD
	Tbilisi, I Love You	American motorcyclist
	13 Sins	Chilcoat
	Before I Disappear	Bill
	Kid ...	Barry Lerner
	Dermaphoria	Anslinger
	Skin Trade	Viktor Dragovic	Direct-to-DVD
	Poker Night	Calabrese
2015	Moonwalkers	Kidman
	Bone in the Throat	N/A	Executive producer
	Stonewall	Ed Murphy
2016	Chuck	Al Braverman
	All I See Is You	N/A	Executive producer
	Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them	Gnarlack (motion capture)
2017	All Nighter	N/A	Executive producer
	Sergio and Sergei	Peter	Also executive producer
	Pottersville	Sheriff Jack	Also producer
2018	To Dust	N/A	Producer
	The Escape of Prisoner 614	The Sheriff	Also executive producer
	Asher	Asher	Also producer
2019	The Great War	General Pershing
	Run with the Hunted	Birdie	Also executive producer
	Hell on the Border	Charlie Storm
2020	Havana Kyrie	Henry
	Clover	Mr. Wiley
	The Big Ugly	Preston	Also executive producer
	Monster Hunter	Admiral
2021	This Game's Called Murder	Mr. Wallendorf
	The Last Victim	Sheriff Hickey
	Boris Karloff: The Man Behind the Monster	Himself	Documentary
	Nightmare Alley	Bruno
	Don't Look Up	Benedict Drask	Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
2022	There Are No Saints	Sans
	The Retirement Plan	Lieutenant Bobo	Post-production
TBA	The Baker	TBA	Post-production
	How I Got There	The Merc	Post-production

Television

Voice roles

Film

Television

Video games

Stage

Books

See also

In Spanish: Ron Perlman para niños