August 25, 2015 (Gephardt Daily) –Ron Perlman is a classically-trained actor who has appeared in countless stage plays, feature films and television productions.
With a career spanning over thirty years, Perlman has worked alongside such diverse actors as Marlon Brando, Sean Connery, Ed Harris, John Hurt, Jude Law, Christina Ricci, Federico Luppi, Sigourney Weaver, Michael Wincott, and Elijah Wood to name a few.
Hollywood has never considered Perlman a “bankable” star. But Perlman has always had a large fan-base.
He started out strong in 1981 as Amoukar, one of the tribesmen in Jean-Jacques Annaud‘s Academy Award-winning film “Quest for Fire“, for which he got a Genie nomination.
Perlman teamed up with Annaud again in 1986, this time playing a hunchback named Salvatore opposite Sean Connery in “The Name of the Rose.”
But it was his performance as Vincent, the lion-man, opposite Linda Hamilton in the cult-series “Beauty and the Beast” in 1987, that thrust him into the limelight.
After the series was cancelled 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.
That friendship would lead Perlman to perhaps his most poplular role in the movies when Guillermo del Toro helped him land the title role in the big-budget comic book movie “Hellboy” in 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 off-beat careers in film, playing everything from a prehistoric ape-man to an aging transsexual and will always be a rarity in Hollywood.
In 2008, he starred in the “Hellboy” sequel “Hellboy II: The Golden Army.”
That same year, Perlman was offered the role of Clarence (Clay) Morrow the leader of the motorcycle gang “The Sons of Anarchy” for FX. The popularity of the series catapulted Perlman to the “A-List” in Hollywood.
The show lasted for 6 years. Perlman now is back working for Amazon in the new streaming series “Hand of God.”
“Amazon isn’t pulling any punches. This is where good writing has gone,” Perlman said to me in our interview. “Their not squeamish.”
In the new series Perlman plays a corrupt judge who suffers a breakdown and believes God is compelling him onto a path of vigilante justice.
