Jeff Perry (actor)
Encyclopedia
Jeff Perry is an American
character actor
.
was staging Luigi Pirandello
's Six Characters in Search of an Author
. He auditioned and got the part.
He is one of the original co-founders of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company
in Chicago, Illinois. Perry and schoolmates Gary Sinise
and Terry Kinney
started the company in a city church basement. It has since grown into a notable national theater company that includes John Malkovich
, John Mahoney
, and Joan Allen
. Perry remains an Executive Artistic Director along with co-founders Kinney & Sinise.
After spending nearly two decades with Steppenwolf, Perry made the move to Los Angeles in 1987 to pursue film and television work. Perry is perhaps best known as the diehard Grateful Dead
fan and police inspector Harvey Leek on the Don Johnson police show Nash Bridges
. He was a tough superior to Kevin Bacon
's detective in the thriller Wild Things
(1998). Many of his television and film credits include The Human Stain
(2003), Hard Promises
(1991) and The Grifters
(1990) as well as appearances on My So-Called Life
(1994), The West Wing
(1999), The Practice
(2003), Lost
(2005), Cold Case (2006), Raines
(2007), and several episodes of Grey's Anatomy
(2006) as Meredith Grey
's father. Recently, he replaced John Billingsley
in the role of Terrence Steadman in the critically acclaimed TV show Prison Break
.
Perry has also been in multiple stage productions. These include Time of your Life (in San Francisco and Seattle), Grapes of Wrath (Broadway
and London), and The Caretaker (Broadway). He starred in the Tracy Letts play August: Osage County on Broadway, which originated at Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago.
, where his father was a teacher at Highland Park High School
. Perry was married
to actress Laurie Metcalf
. They had a child, actress Zoe Perry, together in 1984, but subsequently divorce
d. He is currently married to Grey's Anatomy
s casting director, Linda Lowy,http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002424 with whom he has a daughter named Leah.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
character actor
Character actor
A character actor is one who predominantly plays unusual or eccentric characters. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a character actor as "an actor who specializes in character parts", defining character part in turn as "an acting role displaying pronounced or unusual characteristics or...
.
Career
At a young age, his elder sister Jo took him to an audition at Ravinia Festival where American Conservatory TheaterAmerican Conservatory Theater
American Conservatory Theater is a large non-profit theater company in San Francisco, California, that offers both classical and contemporary theater productions. A.C.T. was founded in 1965 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in conjunction with the Pittsburgh Playhouse and Carnegie Tech by theatre and...
was staging Luigi Pirandello
Luigi Pirandello
Luigi Pirandello was an Italian dramatist, novelist, and short story writer awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1934, for his "bold and brilliant renovation of the drama and the stage." Pirandello's works include novels, hundreds of short stories, and about 40 plays, some of which are written...
's Six Characters in Search of an Author
Six Characters in Search of an Author
Six Characters in Search of an Author is a play by the Italian writer Luigi Pirandello.The play is a satirical tragicomedy. It was first performed in 1921 at the Teatro Valle in Rome, to a very mixed reception, with shouts from the audience of "Manicomio!" .Subsequently the play enjoyed a much...
. He auditioned and got the part.
He is one of the original co-founders of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company
Steppenwolf Theatre Company
Steppenwolf Theatre Company is a Tony Award-winning Chicago theatre company founded in 1974 by Gary Sinise, Terry Kinney and Jeff Perry in the basement of a church in Highland Park, Illinois. It has since relocated to Chicago's Halsted Street, in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. Its name comes from...
in Chicago, Illinois. Perry and schoolmates Gary Sinise
Gary Sinise
Gary Alan Sinise is an American actor, film director and musician. During his career, Sinise has won various awards including an Emmy and a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for an Academy Award. In 1992, Sinise directed, and played the role of George Milton in the successful film adaptation of...
and Terry Kinney
Terry Kinney
Terry Kinney is an American actor and theatre director, and is a founding member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, with Gary Sinise and Jeff Perry.-Early life:...
started the company in a city church basement. It has since grown into a notable national theater company that includes John Malkovich
John Malkovich
John Gavin Malkovich is an American actor, producer, director and fashion designer with his label Technobohemian. Over the last 25 years of his career, Malkovich has appeared in more than 70 motion pictures. For his roles in Places in the Heart and In the Line of Fire, he received Academy Award...
, John Mahoney
John Mahoney
John Mahoney is a British born American actor, known for playing Martin "Marty" Crane, the retired police officer, father of Kelsey Grammer's Dr...
, and Joan Allen
Joan Allen
Joan Allen is an American actress. She worked in theatre, television and film during her early career, and achieved recognition for her Broadway debut in Burn This, winning a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play in 1989.She has received three Academy Award nominations;...
. Perry remains an Executive Artistic Director along with co-founders Kinney & Sinise.
After spending nearly two decades with Steppenwolf, Perry made the move to Los Angeles in 1987 to pursue film and television work. Perry is perhaps best known as the diehard Grateful Dead
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock, and for live performances of long...
fan and police inspector Harvey Leek on the Don Johnson police show Nash Bridges
Nash Bridges
Nash Bridges is an American television police drama created by Carlton Cuse. The show starred Don Johnson and Cheech Marin as two Inspectors with the San Francisco Police Department's Special Investigations Unit. The show ran for six seasons on CBS from March 29, 1996 to May 4, 2001 with a total of...
. He was a tough superior to Kevin Bacon
Kevin Bacon
Kevin Norwood Bacon is an American film and theater actor whose notable roles include Animal House, Diner, Footloose, Flatliners, Wild Things, A Few Good Men, JFK, Apollo 13, Mystic River, The Woodsman, Trapped, Friday the 13th, Hollow Man, Tremors, Death Sentence, Frost/Nixon, Crazy, Stupid, Love....
's detective in the thriller Wild Things
Wild Things
Wild Things is a 1998 erotic thriller film starring Matt Dillon, Neve Campbell, Kevin Bacon, Denise Richards, Theresa Russell and Bill Murray. It was directed by John McNaughton. In some countries the film was released as Sex Crimes...
(1998). Many of his television and film credits include The Human Stain
The Human Stain
The Human Stain is a novel by Philip Roth. It is set in late 1990s rural New England. Its first person narrator is 65-year-old author Nathan Zuckerman, a character in previous Roth novels, including American Pastoral and I Married a Communist ; these two books form a loose trilogy with The Human...
(2003), Hard Promises
Hard Promises (1991 film)
Hard Promises is a 1991 film directed by Martin Davidson. It stars Sissy Spacek and William Petersen.-Plot:A man who doesn't like stable work environments has been away for too many years when he finds out his wife has divorced him and is planning to remarry...
(1991) and The Grifters
The Grifters (film)
The Grifters is a 1990 neo-noir film directed by Stephen Frears and produced by Martin Scorsese. It stars John Cusack, Anjelica Huston and Annette Bening and is based upon The Grifters, a pulp novel by Jim Thompson.-Plot:...
(1990) as well as appearances on My So-Called Life
My So-Called Life
My So-Called Life is an American teen drama television series created by Winnie Holzman and produced by Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz. It originally aired on ABC from August 25, 1994, to January 26, 1995 and was distributed by The Bedford Falls Company with ABC Productions. Set at the...
(1994), The West Wing
The West Wing (TV series)
The West Wing is an American television serial drama created by Aaron Sorkin that was originally broadcast on NBC from September 22, 1999 to May 14, 2006...
(1999), The Practice
The Practice
The Practice is an American legal drama created by David E. Kelley centering on the partners and associates at a Boston law firm. Running for eight seasons from 1997 to 2004, the show won the Emmy in 1998 and 1999 for Best Drama Series, and spawned the successful and lighter spin-off series Boston...
(2003), Lost
Lost (TV series)
Lost is an American television series that originally aired on ABC from September 22, 2004 to May 23, 2010, consisting of six seasons. Lost is a drama series that follows the survivors of the crash of a commercial passenger jet flying between Sydney and Los Angeles, on a mysterious tropical island...
(2005), Cold Case (2006), Raines
Raines
Raines is a crime drama television series that ran from March 15, 2007 to April 27, 2007 on NBC in the United States. The show premiered as a mid-season replacement, as well as airing on CH in Canada, TV3 in Ireland, ITV3 in the UK and on Network Ten in Australia.The series focused on Michael...
(2007), and several episodes of Grey's Anatomy
Grey's Anatomy
Grey's Anatomy is an American medical drama television series created by Shonda Rhimes. The series premiered on March 27, 2005 on ABC; since then, seven seasons have aired. The series follows the lives of interns, residents and their mentors in the fictional Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital in...
(2006) as Meredith Grey
Meredith Grey
Meredith Grey is a fictional surgeon and the series protagonist on the ABC television series Grey's Anatomy. The character is portrayed by actress Ellen Pompeo. In 2007, Pompeo was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama Series for her role as Meredith...
's father. Recently, he replaced John Billingsley
John Billingsley
John Billingsley is an American actor, known for his role as Doctor Phlox on the television series Star Trek: Enterprise.-Career:...
in the role of Terrence Steadman in the critically acclaimed TV show Prison Break
Prison Break
Prison Break is an American television serial drama created by Paul Scheuring, that was broadcast on the Fox Broadcasting Company for four seasons, from 2005 until 2009. The series revolves around two brothers; one has been sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit, and the other devises an...
.
Perry has also been in multiple stage productions. These include Time of your Life (in San Francisco and Seattle), Grapes of Wrath (Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
and London), and The Caretaker (Broadway). He starred in the Tracy Letts play August: Osage County on Broadway, which originated at Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago.
Personal life
Perry was born in Highland Park, IllinoisHighland Park, Illinois
Highland Park is a suburban municipality in Lake County, Illinois, United States, about north of downtown Chicago. As of 2009, the population is 33,492. Highland Park is one of several municipalities located on the North Shore of the Chicago Metropolitan Area.-Overview:Highland Park was founded...
, where his father was a teacher at Highland Park High School
Highland Park High School (Highland Park, Illinois)
Highland Park High School, or HPHS, is a public four-year high school located in Highland Park, Illinois, a North Shore suburb of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. It is part of Township High School District 113, which also includes Deerfield High School.Prior to the 1949–50 school year, the...
. Perry was married
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
to actress Laurie Metcalf
Laurie Metcalf
Lauren Elizabeth "Laurie" Metcalf is an American actress. She is widely known for her performance as Jackie Harris on the ABC sitcom Roseanne, Mary Cooper on The Big Bang Theory, the voice of Mrs. Davis in the Toy Story film series and as Debbie Salt in Scream 2...
. They had a child, actress Zoe Perry, together in 1984, but subsequently divorce
Divorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
d. He is currently married to Grey's Anatomy
Grey's Anatomy
Grey's Anatomy is an American medical drama television series created by Shonda Rhimes. The series premiered on March 27, 2005 on ABC; since then, seven seasons have aired. The series follows the lives of interns, residents and their mentors in the fictional Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital in...
s casting director, Linda Lowy,http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002424 with whom he has a daughter named Leah.
External links
- Jeff Perry at Internet Off-Broadway Database
- The Steppenwolf Theater Company