Biography

He was born in Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...

. His mother was a teacher and his father, Martin Perlich

Martin Perlich

Martin Perlich, born 1937 in Cleveland, Ohio is an American broadcaster and writer. He attended Western Reserve Academy in Hudson, Ohio and Columbia University where he studied music history with composer Douglas Moore....

, a writer and radio programming director and announcer, worked for a time with the Cleveland Orchestra

Cleveland Orchestra

The Cleveland Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Cleveland, Ohio. It is one of the five American orchestras informally referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1918, the orchestra plays most of its concerts at Severance Hall...

. The Perlich family moved to Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

 when Max was four. He is left-handed.

Perlich's career began with a small part in Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Ferris Bueller's Day Off is a 1986 American teen coming-of-age comedy film written and directed by John Hughes.The film follows high school senior Ferris Bueller , who decides to skip school and spend the day in downtown Chicago...

, which came after he had dropped out of high school

High school

High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....

 in the 10th grade. Thus began his appearances in a series of bit parts on television and in teen films such as Can't Buy Me Love

Can't Buy Me Love (film)

Can't Buy Me Love is a 1987 teen comedy feature film starring Patrick Dempsey and Amanda Peterson in a story about a nerd at a high school in Tucson, Arizona who gives a cheerleader $1,000 to pretend to be his girlfriend for a month. The film was directed by Steve Rash.-Plot:Ronald Miller is a...

(1987

1987 in film

-Events:*January 31 - The Cure for Insomnia premieres at The School of the Art Institute in Chicago, Illinois, to officially become the world's longest film according to Guinness World Records....

), Plain Clothes

Plain Clothes (1988 film)

Plain Clothes is a 1988 comedy film directed by Martha Coolidge. The film stars Arliss Howard and was released by Paramount Pictures. As of 2011, it is available on VHS and 'Internet video streaming' through Netflix.-Plot summary:...

(1988

1988 in film

-Top grossing films :- Awards :Academy Awards:* Act of Piracy* Action Jackson, starring Carl Weathers, Craig T. Nelson, Vanity, Sharon Stone* The Adventures of Baron Munchausen* Akira* Alice...

) and Lost Angels

Lost Angels

Lost Angels is a movie starring Donald Sutherland and Adam Horovitz of the Beastie Boys. It was released in 1989 and is an independent film. The movie was directed by Hugh Hudson and written by Michael Weller. It was filmed in and around San Antonio, Texas, that city "standing in" for Los Angeles...

(1989

1989 in film

-Events:* Batman is released on June 23, and goes on to gross over $410 million worldwide.* Actress Kim Basinger and her brother Mick purchase Braselton, Georgia, for $20 million...

). His roles usually were of the slacker

Slacker

The term "slacker" is used to refer to a person who habitually avoids work. Slackers may be regarded as belonging to an antimaterialistic counterculture, though in some cases their behavior may be due to other causes ....

 or juvenile delinquent variety. As he outgrew the teen genre, his later performances, although still minor, were distinguished by eccentricity and twitchy, nervous energy, fully realized in the films Gleaming the Cube

Gleaming the Cube

Gleaming the Cube is an American movie released in 1989. It featured Christian Slater as Brian Kelly, a 16-year-old skateboarder investigating the death of his adopted Vietnamese brother.The Skating Technical Advisor for the film was original Z-Boy, Stacy Peralta...

(1989

1989 in film

-Events:* Batman is released on June 23, and goes on to gross over $410 million worldwide.* Actress Kim Basinger and her brother Mick purchase Braselton, Georgia, for $20 million...

) and Drugstore Cowboy

Drugstore Cowboy

Drugstore Cowboy is a 1989 crime drama directed by Gus Van Sant and written by Van Sant and Daniel Yost, based on a novel by James Fogle. Matt Dillon stars in the title role, and Kelly Lynch, Heather Graham, and William S. Burroughs are also featured. Drugstore Cowboy was filmed mainly around...

(1989

1989 in film

-Events:* Batman is released on June 23, and goes on to gross over $410 million worldwide.* Actress Kim Basinger and her brother Mick purchase Braselton, Georgia, for $20 million...

). He has appeared in supporting roles in films such as Rush

Rush (1991 film)

Rush is a 1991 American crime drama feature film, based on a novel written by Kim Wozencraft. A narcotics detective and his inexperienced partner go after an elusive drug dealer...

(1991

1991 in film

The year 1991 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*April 28 - Bonnie Raitt marries actor Michael O'Keefe in New York* Terminator 2: Judgment Day, became one of the landmarks for science fiction action films with its groundbreaking visual effects from Industrial Light & Magic.*November...

), Maverick

Maverick (film)

Maverick is a 1994 Western comedy film based on the 1950s television series of the same name, created by Roy Huggins. The film was directed by Richard Donner from a screenplay by William Goldman and features Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster and James Garner, as well as several cameo appearances...

(1994

1994 in film

1994 was a significant year in film.The top grosser worldwide was The Lion King, which to date stands as the highest-grossing traditionally-animated film of all time...

), Georgia

Georgia (1995 film)

Georgia is a 1995 American independent film starring Jennifer Jason Leigh and Mare Winningham. In the film, Leigh played Sadie Flood, a punky barroom singer who has a complicated, jealous but loving relationship with her older sister, Georgia, played by Winningham. Georgia is a successful, talented...

(1995

1995 in film

-Top grossing films:-Events:* March 22 - The Dogme 95 movement is officially announced in Paris by Danish directors Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg.* March 28 - Actress Julia Roberts and singer Lyle Lovett announce their plans for separation....

), Blow

Blow (film)

Blow is a 2001 biopic about the American cocaine smuggler George Jung, directed by Ted Demme. David McKenna and Nick Cassavetes adapted Bruce Porter's 1993 book Blow: How a Small Town Boy Made $100 Million with the Medellín Cocaine Cartel and Lost It All for the screenplay. It is based on the real...

(2001

2001 in film

The year 2001 in film involved some significant events, including the first of the Harry Potter series and also the first of The Lord of the Rings trilogy...

) and The Missing

The Missing

The Missing is a 2003 Western thriller film directed by Ron Howard, based on Thomas Eidson's 1996 novel The Last Ride.This Western thriller set in 1885 New Mexico Territory is notable for the authentic use of the Apache language by various actors, some of whom spent long hours studying it...

(2003

2003 in film

The year 2003 in film involved some significant events. Releases of sequels took place with movies like The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions, Pokémon Heroes, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,...

). Along with his continuing work in films, he has had recurring roles in television shows such as Homicide: Life on the Street

Homicide: Life on the Street

Homicide: Life on the Street is an American police procedural television series chronicling the work of a fictional version of the Baltimore Homicide Unit. It ran for seven seasons on NBC from 1993 to 1999, and was succeeded by a TV movie, which also acted as the de-facto series finale...

(1997), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1998), My Name Is Earl

My Name Is Earl

My Name Is Earl is an American television comedy series created by Greg Garcia that was originally broadcast on the NBC television network from September 20, 2005, to May 14, 2009, in the United States...

(2006), and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008). He is also featured in the music videos "No Excuses

No Excuses

"No Excuses" is the lead single off American grunge band Alice in Chains's third EP, Jar of Flies . The song was included on the compilation albums Nothing Safe: Best of the Box , Music Bank , Greatest Hits , and The Essential Alice in Chains .-Composition:The song's sound is a departure from some...

" by Alice In Chains

Alice in Chains

Alice in Chains is an American rock band formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1987 by guitarist and songwriter Jerry Cantrell and original lead vocalist Layne Staley. The initial lineup was rounded out by drummer Sean Kinney, and bassist Mike Starr...

 and "Naked Eye"

Naked Eye (song)

"Naked Eye" is a song by American alternative rock band Luscious Jackson, the first single from their second album Fever in Fever Out. The song was a commercial success peaking at #18 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart and #36 on the Billboard Hot 100...

 by Luscious Jackson

Luscious Jackson

Luscious Jackson are an alternative rock group formed in 1991. The band's name was inspired by now-retired American basketball player Lucious Jackson....

.

Former Homicide co-star Clark Johnson tells of how Perlich was a "wacky" guy, and was involved in a gun-related incident in front of his home in Baltimore over a parking spot. Johnson also notes Perlich made the cast laugh at things he wasn't trying to be funny about, and how the car Perlich drives in the episode "The Hat" was Perlich's personal street car at the time.

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