Ronald Francis "Ron" Perlman (born April 13, 1950) is an American television, film and voice over actor.
Perlman was born in Washington Heights, New York. His mother, Dorothy, is a municipal employee, and his father is a jazz drummer and repairman.
He attended George Washington High School and later Lehman College in New York City in 1971, where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Theatre. Perlman also attended the University of Minnesota, where he graduated with a master's degree in theater arts.
Perlman is Jewish. He has been married to Opal Perlman since February 14, 1981, and he has two children, Blake Amanda (born 1984), and Brandon Avery (born 1990).
Perlman has volunteered as an actor with the Young Storytellers Program.
Perlman made his feature film debut in Jean-Jacques Annaud's film Quest for Fire (1981). After various minor and supporting roles in films and television series, his breakthrough role came when he played Vincent in the TV series Beauty and the Beast, opposite Linda Hamilton from 1987 to 1990. This earned him a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series in 1989 and a large fanbase. He played his first leading film role in 1995, when he played the gargantuan oaf "One" in Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro's The City of Lost Children. He finally got another leading film role in 2004 when he played the title role in the comic book adaptation Hellboy.
As well as onscreen acting, Perlman has lent his voice to numerous video games and animated series. These include Vice Principal Lancer in Danny Phantom, Justice in Afro Samurai and various characters in DC Comics based series such as Slade in the Teen Titans, Clayface in Batman: The Animated Series, Jax-Ur in Superman: The Animated Series, Orion in Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, Killer Croc, Rumor, and at one point even Bane in The Batman.
His video game credits include Lord Terrence Hood, Fleet Admiral in command of Earth's space defenses against the Covenant in the games Halo 2 and Halo 3, Jagger Valance in The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, Justice League Heroes as Batman, and most recently, Hellboy: Blood and Iron. He is well-known by Fallout fans for narrating the introductory movies in the series, including uttering the famous phrase "War. War never changes". He voices Slade in the 2008 Turok game.