Ron Perlman

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Birthday:

13 April 1950, New York City, New York, USA

Birth Name:

Ronald Francis Perlman

Height:

185 cm

Ron Perlman is a classically-trained actor who has appeared in countless stage plays, feature films and television productions.Ronald N. Perlman was born April 13, 1950 in Washington Heights, Manhattan, New York. His mother, Dorothy (Rosen), is retired from the City Clerk's Office. His father, Bertram "Bert" Perlman, now deceased, was a repairman and a drummer. His parents were both from Jewish families (from Hungary, Germany and Poland).With a career spanning over three decades, Perlman has worked alongside such diverse actors as Marlon Brando, Sean Connery, Dominique Pinon, Brad Dourif, Ed Harris, John Hurt, Jude Law, Christina Ricci, Federico Luppi, Sigourney Weaver, Michael Wincott and Elijah Wood to name a few.While he has never been a bankable star, Perlman has always had a large fanbase. He started out strong as Amoukar, one of the tribesmen in Jean-Jacques Annaud's Academy Award-winning film La guerre du feu (1981), for which he earned a Genie Award nomination. Perlman teamed up with Annaud again, this time as a hunchback named Salvatore in Der Name der Rose (1986). His first real breakthrough came later when he landed the role of the noble lion-man Vincent, opposite Linda Hamilton on the fantasy series Beauty and the Beast (1987). His work in this role earned him not only a Golden Globe Award but an underground fan following. Sadly the series was cancelled in its third season shortly after Hamilton's character's death.After that, he spent time doing supporting work on television and independent films such as Guillermo del Toro's debut Cronos (1993) (where a lifelong friendship and collaboration between the director and Perlman would blossom) as Angel and his first lead role as One in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's surreal La cité des enfants perdus (1995). His first real big role in a mainstream film came when Jeunet wanted him for the brutish Johner in his first Hollywood outing Alien: Resurrection (1997). Perlman has also used his distinctive voice to his advantage, appearing in many animated films/series, commercials and he is a video game fan favorite because of his work on such games as the Fallout series.It was not until much later he received worldwide fame when his good friend Guillermo del Toro helped him land the title role in the big-budget comic book movie Hellboy (2004). Del Toro fought the studio for four years because they wanted a more secure name, but he stood his ground and in 2004, after almost 25 years in and out of obscurity, Perlman became and household name and a sought out actor. Perlman has had one of the most offbeat careers in film, playing everything from a prehistoric ape-man to an aging transsexual and will always be a rarity in Hollywood.Other notable roles include the cunning Norman Arbuthnot in The Last Supper (1995), sniper expert Koulikov in Enemy at the Gates (2001), vampire leader Reinhardt in Blade II (2002), his reprisal of Hellboy in Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008) and biker chief Clarence Morrow on the popular series Sons of Anarchy (2008).He currently resides in Los Angeles, California with his wife, Opal, and their two children, Blake and Brandon. Show less «

I've always felt there were aspects of me that were monstrous, and you can either hide from it or confront it, embrace it and understand tha...Show more »

I've always felt there were aspects of me that were monstrous, and you can either hide from it or confront it, embrace it and understand that those are aspects that make you unique and define you and motivate you. You can either overwhelm or overcompensate for them -- but they truly define you as a human being... So that life became a question of either dealing with this monstrousness in one way or another... One finds a way to understand and make friends with that monster and understand that that's the very thing that makes you who you are. That's your emotional and spiritual fingerprint. Show less «

I've done millions of mediocre movies. I've done way more than my fair share. You do what you gotta do. This is not heart surgery. I'm not c...Show more »

I've done millions of mediocre movies. I've done way more than my fair share. You do what you gotta do. This is not heart surgery. I'm not curing cancer. I'm just trying to put my kids through school. Show less «

[on being a director] I don't like working with me. I would punch myself in the mouth if I had to take my direction.

[When asked what his idea of Hell is] Working at a job that you hate. Having a career and a life that you have no passion for. That's hell.

[on Guillermo del Toro] It seems as though we are like brothers. After knowing the guy for five minutes, it was one of these instances, wher...Show more »

[on Guillermo del Toro] It seems as though we are like brothers. After knowing the guy for five minutes, it was one of these instances, where you felt, that you've known him for twenty-five years. This instantaneous friendship and recognition. Very, very similar way of viewing the world. And then we found, that working with each other, there was a real simpatico. And I think you could even say, that we are alter egos for one another. Like if he was an actor, he would be me and if I was a filmmaker, I would be him. We seem to be trying to make the same statement in the world. Show less «

I'd be dead without my sense of humor. I can't imagine processing the shit we are slogging our way through in life without it. In a twenty-f...Show more »

I'd be dead without my sense of humor. I can't imagine processing the shit we are slogging our way through in life without it. In a twenty-four-hour space, you get an acute sense of how all of this injustice and out-rage is absurd. There are things that are truly serious, like when one loses his health or gets into a life-threatening accident. But the rest of it... If you can't laugh your way through life, then you are fucked. Humor was the first form of armor I ever wore to counteract my self-image. The first girl I ever asked out on a date laughed at me, because she thought I was kidding. While I didn't cry on the surface, inside I was weeping. But outwardly I made a joke out of the situation. So humor has always been my shield against the slings and arrows. I turn them into something satiric. Show less «

[1990] People are doing sitcoms on stage rather than theater. You go to the theater, and it's as if you were watching a sitcom at 8:30 on Ch...Show more »

[1990] People are doing sitcoms on stage rather than theater. You go to the theater, and it's as if you were watching a sitcom at 8:30 on Channel 4. Show less «

[When asked if he is afraid to be typecast as a tough guy after Alien: Resurrection (1997)] I don't bear any label. I perform very extreme c...Show more »

[When asked if he is afraid to be typecast as a tough guy after Alien: Resurrection (1997)] I don't bear any label. I perform very extreme characters, but at the same time men with an enormous goodness. Take for example the Hercules from La cité des enfants perdus (1995), One, he is a child in an adult body; One is pure, simple and innocent. My character in Beauty and the Beast (1987) had an enormous generosity, far from this world; the Beast was too good to be real. It's true that I hardly play ordinary people due to my appearance, anyway I am not a captive of any register, I don't systematically play tough and not very bright people. I congratulate myself for my varied filmography and for being able to do all roles. Show less «

I lost 90 pounds and my blood pressure went down to a normal level and the salt in my urine disappeared. And that was when I had to make the...Show more »

I lost 90 pounds and my blood pressure went down to a normal level and the salt in my urine disappeared. And that was when I had to make the transition from fat character actor to thin character actor. Show less «

[on acting] It's nice to get paid for therapy rather than having to pay $240 an hour for it.

I just think that there are those people that their resolve is strengthened by what it is that's keeping them down, and there are some peopl...Show more »

I just think that there are those people that their resolve is strengthened by what it is that's keeping them down, and there are some people that will buckle under it. You never know which one is which until you get into the eighth or ninth round of the fight. Show less «

I will not do a role that I don't think I can do, that I'm not interested in, where there's no humanity, that doesn't have any kind of handl...Show more »

I will not do a role that I don't think I can do, that I'm not interested in, where there's no humanity, that doesn't have any kind of handle for me at all because I know I'll just stink the joint up. Show less «

I think there are a lot of technocrats in the business who would much rather work with just wheels and gears and machinery. Those things int...Show more »

I think there are a lot of technocrats in the business who would much rather work with just wheels and gears and machinery. Those things interest them more than humanity and I wish them the best of luck. Show less «

I don't think anything is ever going to replace the human heart and what that generates in terms of performance.

[on his childhood days] I was not dealt the best physical hand in the world. My nose didn't fit my mouth. My forehead didn't fit my cheeks. ...Show more »

[on his childhood days] I was not dealt the best physical hand in the world. My nose didn't fit my mouth. My forehead didn't fit my cheeks. And those are traditionally the years when a boy is judged primarily on his looks. So consequently, I suffered from very low self-esteem. In a sense, I had a beast inside me. That beast was fear and insecurity. Show less «

[on his love for the Turner Classic Movies channel] My antidote to a cold, hard, really cruel world is to go back and watch old black and wh...Show more »

[on his love for the Turner Classic Movies channel] My antidote to a cold, hard, really cruel world is to go back and watch old black and white movies and go, "Oh, Oh... Oh, Humphrey! Oh, Cary! Oh, Burt!". That's it, man. I mean, you know it's just another time and place. It seems like there was a little order to the universe back then. Show less «

I come from a dad who I adored, upon whose thought and word I hung. He was agnostic and maybe even an atheist. He had that kind of an active...Show more »

I come from a dad who I adored, upon whose thought and word I hung. He was agnostic and maybe even an atheist. He had that kind of an active dysfunction with that kind of spiritual stuff. Strangely enough, it was him dying that kind of turned me onto this universe that was made up of things that weren't explainable - that ultimately I assigned to this all-present, all-powerful being who sees all, knows all, and who, really, actually, does have a plan. Show less «

[on In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (2007)] I'm doing weapons training for this piece of shit, then I go to Romania to shoot a...Show more »

[on In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (2007)] I'm doing weapons training for this piece of shit, then I go to Romania to shoot another piece of shit, then come back to shoot my part in this piece of shit...[sighs]...What can I say? My wife loves shoes. Show less «