an award-winning actor, has moved seamlessly between the worlds of film, television, and theater for almost three decades. Having received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Minnesota, he returned to his native New York to begin his professional career in theater, delving into the works of contemporaries like Pinter and Beckett as well as the classics of Shakespeare, Marlowe, Ibsen, and Checkov with two recent trips back to Broadway in A FEW GOOD MEN and BUS STOP.
His film career began in the early eighties with two films back to back for director Jean Jacques Annaud; QUEST FOR FIRE, for which he received a Canadian Academy Award nomination, and the role of Salvatore, the hunchback in Umberto Eco’s THE NAME OF THE ROSE. Perlman continues his unique collaboration with French directors, starring in Jean Pierre Juenet and Marc Caro’s award winning CITY OF LOST CHILDREN and costarring with Sigourney Weaver and Winona Ryder in Juenet’s ALIEN RESURRECTION. Other film work includes roles in studio ventures such as THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU, ROMEO IS BLEEDING, FLUKE, THE ADVENTURES OF HUCK FINN, AND SLEEPWALKERS as well as independent films including CRONOS, THE LAST SUPPER, and WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS, FROGS FOR SNAKES, I WOKE UP EARLY THE DAY I DIED, TINSELTOWN, and Miramax’s HAPPY TEXAS.
Perlman’s film career was interrupted for a three-year run on CBS’ critically acclaimed BEAUTY AND THE BEAST for which he received a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor along with two Emmy Nominations and three Viewers For Quality Television Awards. Other television work includes HBO’s THE SECOND CIVIL WAR, MR. STITCH, THE ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN ZOOM, the Rob Nilsson adaptation of the Rod Serling classic A TOWN HAS TURNED TO DUST for the Sci-Fi Channel, THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, marking his second collaboration with CBS, New Line Cinema’s feature PRICE OF GLORY with Jimmy Smits, Mandalay’s, ENEMY AT THE GATE, opposite Jude Law, New Line Cinema’s BLADE II, Paramount’s STAR TREK: NEMISIS, the Oscar winning short film TWO SOLDIERS, Guillermo del Toro’s HELLBOY for Revolution Studios in which he plays the title character. Stephen King’s mini-series DESPERATION FOR ABC, and IN THE NAME OF THE KING with Jason Statham and John Rhys-Davies. Perlman was recently seen in MASTERS OF HORROR, directed by John Carpenter, for Showtime, as well as the independent feature MUTANT CHRONICLES, starring opposite Stephen Rea and John Malkovich.
Currently Perlman can be seen on the hit Cable show SONS OF ANARCHY.
