Distinguished actor Ron Perlman has crafted a prominent career in his more than 40 years in show business, proving countless times he can do anything. The dynamic performer has starred in numerous successful movies and television shows, showcasing his impeccable range and charisma with every role he takes. The instantly recognizable Perlman made his feature film debut in 1981 in the fantasy adventure Quest for Fire, and went on to find success with the show Beauty and the Beast and in pictures like Cronos and Blade II.
Perlman’s frequent collaboration and friendship with director Guillermo del Toro has led to the duo working on numerous projects together, most notably the Hellboy films, Pacific Rim, and most recently Nightmare Alley. The seasoned star saw a resurgence in popularity with his role as the half-demon/half-human Hellboy, as well as his gripping portrayal as outlaw motorcycle club leader Clay Morrow in the smash hit series Sons of Anarchy, and is potentially joining the MCU. Let’s take a closer look at some of Ron Perlman’s best performances.
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9 Pacific Rim
Warner Bros. Pictures
Appearing alongside his Sons of Anarchy co-star Charlie Hunnam, Ron Perlman is delightfully devious as a shady black marketeer in the 2013 sci-fi monster flick Pacific Rim, which follows a group of brave pilots who are called to battle against mammoth sea creatures determined to destroy the planet. Perlman’s character Hannibal Chau sells the organs of the Kaiju monsters and operates out of Hong Kong, and is heavily driven by both money and status.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
His appearance in the blockbuster marks the actor’s fifth collaboration with Guillermo del Toro, and when asked about casting Perlman, the director stated, “I think the moment you have a guy that is called Hannibal Chau and Ron shows up, and he’s from Brooklyn and he’s been selling black market organs, you know the whole story … That’s all I need to know. If it’s any other actor, there’s a lot more explaining to do. But when Ron comes in with that look, you can make your own story and it’ll be as compelling as anything I can invent.”
8 Nightmare Alley
Searchlight Pictures
Once again working alongside frequent collaborator Guillermo del Toro, Perlman appeared as a carnival strong man in the 2021 neo-noir thriller Nightmare Alley, an adaptation of the William Lindsay Gresham novel that chronicles a grifter’s rise to prominence from a carnival worker to a revered psychic medium in 1940s New York.
With a star-studded ensemble cast including Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Willem Dafoe, and Rooney Mara, the film failed to make a box office splash but was successful with critics, ultimately earning four Academy Award nominations including Best Picture. In their review of the thriller, The Guardian called it a “spectacular noir melodrama boasting gruesomely enjoyable performances and freaky twists.”
7 Drive
FilmDistrict
Nicolas Winding Refn’s spectacular 2011 action drama Drive tells the riveting story on an unnamed Hollywood stuntman (Ryan Gosling) who also acts as a criminal-for-hire getaway driver that finds himself caught in a high-stakes million-dollar heist gone awry.
Perlman is in all his villainous glory as Nino “Izzy” Paolozzi, a dangerous mobster who enlists the Driver to help him in a robbery but later sets out to eliminate the young man after double-crossing him. Drive was both a critical and commercial hit, earning a standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival, where Refn also won the prestigious Best Director Award; it was also nominated for an Academy Award and Golden Globe.
6 Blade II
New Line Cinema
Wesley Snipes returned as the eponymous human-vampire Marvel character in the 2002 superhero horror flick Blade II, this time facing off against a ruthless group of vampire mutants who seek to cause the destruction of all races. Wesley Snipes once again nails it as the daywalker Blade, who hunts down vampires alongside his human mentor Abraham Whistler (Kris Krisofferson), and the pair faces their most difficult foes yet who want to eradicate both humans and vampires.
Perlman is sensationally sinister as Dieter Reinhardt, a bitter member of the Bloodpack who harbors an intense hatred for Blade, resulting in an epic fight between the two. He almost seems like his Sons of Anarchy character was a vampire, and is utterly awesome in the film.
5 Beauty and the Beast
CBS Television Distribution
Ron Perlman landed his breakthrough role as a kind and noble man-beast in the ’80s fantasy drama series Beauty and the Beast, appearing alongside Terminator icon Linda Hamilton in the fairy tale-inspired program. In the modern day retelling, the actor portrays Vincent, a man with the characteristics of a lion who also has empathic abilities.
He falls for the lovely and professionally driven Assistant District Attorney Catherine Chandler (Hamilton), with the duo developing an unlikely bond despite their vastly different backgrounds. The series ran for a surprising three seasons and helped establish Perlman as a household name, earning him a Golden Globe Award for his compelling performance as the misunderstood beast.
4 Cronos
October Films
Guillermo del Toro made his directorial debut with the 1993 Mexican independent horror film Cronos, which follows antique dealer Jesus Gris (Federico Luppi) as he stumbles upon a mysterious artifact that grants him eternal life but causes him to develop an all-consuming desire for blood. Perlman appears as Angel de la Guardia (translated to Guardian Angel), the thug nephew of a dying old man who wants the cronos device in order to renew his youth and save him from his impending death.
His role marked the beginning of a lifelong friendship and partnership with del Toro, with Perlman praising the director by saying, “There was just something about the way he frames an image, which is quintessentially the thing that separates cinema from every other art form, that you just know he’s got it, that he’s a filmmaker of the highest order.”
3 Teen Titans
Warner Bros. Television Distribution
Ron Perlman is no stranger to lending his distinct voice to both television and film projects, having done so in an assortment of projects including Batman: The Animated Series, Justice League and Avatar: The Last Airbender. Perhaps his most noteworthy voice performance was as the supervillain Slade in the DC Comics animated superhero series Teen Titans, focusing on the titular crime-fighting team consisting of Beast Boy, Raven, Cyborg, Robin and Starfire.
Slade sets out to turn Robin into his protégé, with the devious mastermind eventually going head-to-head with the iconic hero. Perlman would go on and reprise the character once again in Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox.
2 Sons of Anarchy
20th Television
Kurt Sutter’s epic crime drama series Sons of Anarchy famously chronicles the lives of a prominent outlaw motorcycle gang in the fictional town of Charming, California, and features a dynamite ensemble cast such as Charlie Hunnam, Katey Sagal, Ron Perlman, and Kim Coates. In the thrilling show, Perlman portrays the club’s president and founding member Clay Morrow, who continuously butts heads with his vice-president and step-son Jax Teller (Hunnam) over conflicting ideologies for how the club should be run. The overall premise is inspired by one of Shakespeare’s most famous tragedies, having been declared “Hamlet on Harleys.”
Sons of Anarchy went on to become FX’s highest-rated series and has amassed a passionate fan following as well as critical acclaim, and it currently holds an audience score of 91%. Perlman went on to become one of the show’s most ruthless antagonists and gained widespread recognition with his performance, having once joked that the role was “a gamechanger in terms of me getting a table at a restaurant.”
1 Hellboy
Columbia Pictures
Arguably Ron Perlman’s most iconic and recognized role in his illustrious career, even if it may be the one in which his face is the most disguised, is the eponymous half-human/half-demon in Guillermo del Toro’s 2004 superhero film Hellboy, an adaptation of the Dark Horse Comics graphic novel. Perlman’s Hellboy has become synonymous with the character, who was summoned by Nazi occultists in World War II and rescued by Allied Forces, ultimately being raised by a kind scientist. 60 years later, Hellboy has made it his mission to protect the world from any supernatural threats.
Perlman truly made the role his own and his portrayal earned a devoted fan-following, with critic Rogert Ebert commending the actor and stating, “And in Ron Perlman, it has found an actor who is not just playing a superhero, but enjoying it … he chomps his cigar, twitches his tail and battles his demons with something approaching glee. You can see an actor in the process of making an impossible character really work.” Many are hopeful that Perlman will return for a third and final installment after the failure of the 2019 reboot, and he himself has expressed a desire to properly close the del Toro trilogy.
