1989 Press Release: Ron Perlman Bio
(source: an official press release from Witt-Thomas Productions in 1989.)
Ron Perlman stars as Vincent, the powerful man/beast whose frightening appearance belies his superior intelligence and nobility of spirit in “Beauty and the Beast,” the hour-long fantasy-drama filled with action, suspense and romance, airing Wednesday nights at 8:00 pm (ET) on the CBS Television Network. In this contemporary fable, Vincent is a champion of justice who makes his home in the secret tunnels and chambers beneath the streets of Manhattan.
Ron’s character has become so popular that it spurred the creation of the Capitol Records album “Of Love and Hope.” A surprise hit this past summer, the record consists of Perlman as Vincent reading poetry by such greats as Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Byron and Shelley, accompanied by the series’ classically styled soundtrack music.
Widely acclaimed for his performance as the Beast, Ron earned Emmy Award nominations in 1988 and 1989 for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. Both years, he was also voted Best Actor in a Quality Drama by the Viewers for Quality Television.
To achieve the fearsome look of Vincent, Perlman spends the first early hours of every shooting day in the makeup artist’s chair. He has traveled this difficult road before. In his first starring motion picture role in Academy Award winner Jean-Jacques Annaud’s acclaimed “Quest for Fire,” he spent eight months filming barefoot and almost naked in the frozen bogs of Scotland portraying a pre-historic Ulam tribesman, a characterization which also required extensive makeup.
In the motion picture adaptation of Umberto Eco’s bestseller, “The Name of the Rose,” in which Perlman starred with Sean Connery and F. Murray Abraham, he again underwent a daily, hours-long transformation to become the facially deformed and hunchbacked monk Salvatore.
More recently, Perlman stepped out from behind the mask when he starred with Ken Olin and Jill Eikenberry in NBC-TV’s powerful drama, “A Stoning in Fulham County.” in the telefilm, which is based on a true story about the stoning of an Amish child by reckless teenage boys, Perlman played the father of the murdered infant who resisted initial involvement in the trial because of his strict religious beliefs.
Ron also steps behind the camera this season for the first time to direct an episode of “Beauty and the Beast,” entitled “The Chimes at Midnight.”
Perlman was born in Manhattan on April 13, 1950, the son of a jazz drummer who played with Artie Shaw’s band before giving up music as a profession. He began performing on stage while still in high school, first as a comedian, then as an actor. He continued to appear in theater productions as a student at the City University of New York and while earning a Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of Minnesota. Upon returning to New York, he joined the Classic Stage Company, preforming for almost two years the works fo Shakespeare, Chekhov, O’Neill, Ibsen and Pinter.
Tom O’Horgan, famed director of Broadway’s “Hair,” then cast him as the Emperor in the highly successful, four-hour, Off-Broadway presentation of “The Architect and the Emperor of Assyria,” which later toured Europe and marked the beginning of Perlman’s long association with O’Horgan. Perlman also starred in the Broadway production of “American Heroes,” the Off-Broadway production of “The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui” and in the regional tour of “Pal Joey” with Joel Grey and Alexis Smith, all of which O’Horgan directed.
In New York and regional theaters, he starred in “Tartuffe,” “Woyzeck,” “Measure for Measure,” “House of Blue Leaves,” “Two Gentlement of Verona” and “The Iceman Cometh.” Perlman also appeared on Broadway with F. Murray Abraham in Isaac Bashevis Singer’s “Tiebele and Her Demon.”
Following the release of “Quest for Fire,” the actor received his first call from Hollywood to appear with ANgelica Houston in MGM’s “Ice Pirates.” He then returned to New York for producer Peter Brook’s highly successful Lincoln Center production of “La Tragedie De Carmen.”
Perlman now resides in Los Angeles with his wife, fashion designer Opal Stone, and their five and a half-year-old daughter, Blake Amanda.
October 26th, 2008 by Ginger | No Comments »