Biography
While acting from behind elaborate masks and prosthetics is one of his trademarks, actor Ron Perlman still possesses one of the most famous faces in Hollywood. Born in Washington Heights, New York in 1950, Perlman has described himself as having been extremely overweight as a child, which would later make the process of hiding behind a character or a mask feel very appealing. Perlman was acting in a school production of the musical "Guys and Dolls" at Lehman College when his father saw him perform and later remarked that young Perlman was so talented, he "had to" become a professional actor. With a new feeling of support and encouragement, he steered his life toward the direction of acting, eventually earning a master's degree in theater arts from the University of Minnesota and moving to New York. There, Perlman began gaining acting experience working with a small theater called CSC Repertory before his first big break eventually came in 1979 when he made his Broadway debut as Beadle Treitel in "Teibele and Her Demon." Perlman broke into on-screen work that same year, appearing in a two-episode arc on the soap opera "Ryan's Hope" (ABC, 1974-1989), and eventually made his first feature film appearance with a substantial role in the movie "The Quest for Fire" (1981). Film and TV quickly became Perlman's main professional and creative outlets. He appeared in the cult hit "The Ice Pirates" (1984) and in the historical mystery "The Name of the Rose" (1986) before being cast as what would prove to be one of his most iconic characters, the lion-esque Beast opposite Linda Hamilton on the modern fantasy-adventure-romance hybrid "Beauty and the Beast" (CBS, 1987-1990). The very unique show helped cement Perlman's place in pop culture, and he still found time between seasons to appear on Broadway as the cantankerous Col. Nathan Jessup in the original cast of "A Few Good Men" in 1988. Perlman returned to Broadway again in 1996 for a revival of "Bus Stop," but remained most active on screen, memorably co-starring on the TV adaptation of "The Magnificent Seven" (CBS, 1998-2000) and in movies like "Blade II" (2002) and "Enemy at the Gates" (2001). In 2004, Perlman took on the title role in Guillermo Del Toro's big screen adaptation of the comic book "Hellboy" (2004), which proved wildly popular, especially during a time when comic book adaptations had not yet become reliable money makers in the film industry. He returned to the part for the 2008 sequel before starring as the patriarch of a motorcycle gang on the gritty and acclaimed drama series "Sons of Anarchy" (FX, 2008-2014), which lasted for seven seasons. Perlman so enjoyed the format of the TV drama that he executive produced his next such project, the procedural "Hand of God" (Amazon, 2014-17) which he also starred on opposite Dana Delany. Producing proved another great talent for Perlman and he took on a similar role with several of the next projects he appeared in, including the thriller "Run with the Hunted" (2019).
