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 (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), Deathstroke 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 the Adventure Time franchise (2011–2023), Xibalba in The Book of Life (2014), and Optimus Primal in both the (2018) animated series and the film (2023).
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-esteem." He stated this experience is something that attracts him to roles where he portrays "these sorts of deformed people who are very endearing."
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.
He went on to play supporting roles in many films throughout the 1990s as well as the 2000s. His most notable film appearances were in films such as Romeo is Bleeding (1993), The Adventures of Huck Finn (1993), (1994), The Last Supper (1995), The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996), Alien Resurrection (1997), Enemy at the Gates (2001), Blade II and (both 2002) and two Stephen King adaptations, Sleepwalkers and Desperation. His appearances on television series include , 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 Hellboy in the comic book adaptation Hellboy. Perlman reprised his role as Hellboy in the direct-to-video animated features Hellboy: Sword of Storms (2006) and Hellboy: Blood and Iron (2007) as well as (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 2017–2018.
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. Perlman starred in the 2024 horror film Succubus, written and directed by R.J. Daniel Hanna.
His video game credits include Terrence Hood in the games Halo 2 and Halo 3, Jagger Valance in , and Batman in Justice League Heroes. He is well known by Fallout series fans for narrating the introductory films 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 , 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 (2016), Perlman offered his likeness and voice to one of the lead playable characters in the game's popular Zombies mode.
Perlman was the narrator of the 2013 award-winning documentary "FORGET US NOT The 5 Million Non-Jewish Victims", currently available on Amazon Prime (2025).
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.
Perlman is a lifelong Democrat. He has been a vocal critic of U.S. President Donald Trump, whose son Donald Trump Jr. called Perlman "a coward" for allegedly being aware of Harvey Weinstein's sexual abuses on several women in the entertainment industry and staying silent about it. In 2018, Perlman claimed that he intentionally urinated on his hand prior to shaking 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.
Easy Street (the Hard Way): A Memoir |
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