Ray Wise

Birthday: 20 August 1947, Akron, Ohio, USA

Birth Name: Raymond Herbert Wise

Height: 177 cm

Raymond Herbert "Ray" Wise (born August 20, 1947) is an American actor. Some of his best-known roles include Leland Palmer in Twin Peaks (1990), henchman Leon C. Nash in RoboCop (1987), Jack Taggart Sr. in Jeepers Creepers II (2003), the Devil in the CW television series Reaper (2007), Donald Wadsworth in Suburban Gothic (2014).Wise was born in Akron, Ohio, graduated from Garfield High School in 1964 and attended Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. He is of Romanian descent on his mother's side. Show less «

(2009, Good Night, And Good Luck) I got a call one day to put myself on tape for George Clooney, thi...Show more »

(2009, Good Night, And Good Luck) I got a call one day to put myself on tape for George Clooney, this little Hollenbeck scene. He saw the tape, along with his partner, and they liked it very much, and decided to cast me in it. George was familiar with my work and my career, and once he saw me do the character, he felt I was the perfect guy for it. And it turned out to be that way. It was something I really identified with. I think George saw aspects of Hollenbeck in Leland Palmer. They were both tragic men whose lives came to a tragic end. Show less «

My memories are of 95-degree temperatures and 98-percent humidity, and these big mosquitoes, and bla...Show more »

My memories are of 95-degree temperatures and 98-percent humidity, and these big mosquitoes, and black flies and alligators. My fondest memories are of Adrienne Barbeau and her cavorting around the swamp. We had a great time down there in Charleston, South Carolina, Wes Craven and the whole bunch of us. We were like kids, playing these great comic-book characters. -- on Swamp Thing (1982) Show less «

I've always been a Dracula/vampire aficionado, being half-Romanian myself. Dracula has always been c...Show more »

I've always been a Dracula/vampire aficionado, being half-Romanian myself. Dracula has always been close to my heart -- in fact, I have a first edition of Bram Stoker's book. I read it over and over again as a young kid. I was a fan of the Lugosi film, and I've been a fan really of all the Dracula films made ever since. Christopher Lee's is a particular favorite of mine, and I like Coppola's film with 'Gary Oldman'. But I've never felt like the definitive Dracula film has been made. I'd like to take a shot at that some time in the near future. Show less «

They [the producers] pretty much laid out this character out for me in the writing, how they wanted ...Show more »

They [the producers] pretty much laid out this character out for me in the writing, how they wanted him to have a sense of humor, that kind of twinkle in his eye, and a little bit of charm. I wasn't the standard scary devil, and that really appealed to me. I'm a big fan of all the great movie devils, from Walter Huston to Ray Walston to Al Pacino to Jack Nicholson. I admired a lot of their devils, and I wanted mine to be somewhat different. It's kind of a combination between a used-car salesman and a game-show host. -- on playing The Devil in Reaper (2007) Show less «

What goes through my mind when I see myself blowing some guy's brains out on screen? It looks a lot ...Show more »

What goes through my mind when I see myself blowing some guy's brains out on screen? It looks a lot worse than it did when I was doing it. It's all so technical, really, when we're shotgun-blasting apart Peter Weller. It's kind of gruesome when you're doing it, but it looks worse on screen. It's not so bad, really. A little bit of gratuitous violence in a well-thought-out story is fine. -- on RoboCop (1987) Show less «

(2009, on Robocop) That was a trip. That was great fun. Paul Verhoeven's a madman, and he's a lot of...Show more »

(2009, on Robocop) That was a trip. That was great fun. Paul Verhoeven's a madman, and he's a lot of fun. I just remember that me and other bad guys, we just had a ball blowing up those streets. There was a whole section of Dallas that was going to be torn down, all these old storefronts, and we took over for two or three nights and just blew the hell out of that place. The special-effects guy had a ball, and we did, too, with our big 50-caliber guns. We were like kids, playing cops and robbers. And then we went to Pittsburgh, to the steel plant there, to do the other part of the story, and we just had a ball making that film. And Paul was the ringleader. He loved the bad guys. Show less «

(2009, on Reaper) I came in rather late in the casting process. I believe they had all the other rol...Show more »

(2009, on Reaper) I came in rather late in the casting process. I believe they had all the other roles cast. They were having trouble finding the devil. They had seen almost 100 actors for the role. I got the script and I liked it-it was clever and witty and very, very funny, and a nice, fresh take on an old story. I went in and did a scene for the producers, the kitchen scene from the pilot where I'm cooking a chicken-fried steak. At the end of it, they all had a smile on their face, and they realized they had found their devil. Show less «

I'm so glad I played Leland Palmer, I can't even tell you. Reading the pilot episode and seeing what...Show more »

I'm so glad I played Leland Palmer, I can't even tell you. Reading the pilot episode and seeing what Leland went through, I thought, "This could be pretty one-dimensional. It was a father grieving for his murdered daughter. But boy, was I wrong. I had no idea the gamut Leland would run during the course of that show. They just wrote a beautiful character, and I'm fortunate to have played it. -- on Twin Peaks (1990) Show less «

(2009, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 and Command & Conquer: Yuri's Revenge) Somebody just called up...Show more »

(2009, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 and Command & Conquer: Yuri's Revenge) Somebody just called up and said they'd like me to do this videogame, and then they told me how much they were going to pay me, and I thought, "That's kind of a good idea." Plus we did it in Las Vegas and they put me up at the Bellagio, and that was easy to take. So everything about it was too good to turn down. My president was very Kennedy-esque, so I enjoyed doing it. Show less «

Ray Wise

Ray Wise's FILMOGRAPHY

Ray Wise'S roles

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