Jeff Perry (American actor)
| Jeff Perry | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 16, 1955 Highland Park, Illinois, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1978–present |
| Spouse | Laurie Metcalf (div.) Linda Lowy (current) |
Jeff Perry (born August 16, 1955) is an American character actor.
[edit] Career
At a young age, his elder sister Jo took him to an audition at Ravinia Festival where American Conservatory Theater 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.
[edit] Personal life
Perry was born in Highland Park, Illinois, 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 divorced. He is currently married to Grey's Anatomy's casting director, Linda Lowy,[1] with whom he has a daughter named Leah.
