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Ralph Waite

 
Actor: Ralph Waite
Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > Actors
  • Born: Jun 22, 1928 in White Plains, New York
  • Occupation: Actor, Director, Writer
  • Active: '70s-'90s
  • Major Genres: Drama
  • Career Highlights: The Bodyguard, Last Summer, Cliffhanger
  • First Major Screen Credit: Last Summer (1969)

Biography

Upon earning his BA at Bushnell University, Ralph Waite embarked upon no fewer than three careers before deciding upon acting. First, Waite was a social case worker in New York's Westchester County, a job he quit after running into the stone walls of indifference and bureaucracies. Then, after spending three at the Yale School of Divinity, he was a practicing Presbyterian minister; this, too fell by the wayside due to Waite's unwillingness to conform to church protocol and his disenchantment over the perceived hypocrisy of his fellow clerics. Finally, he worked as a religious editor for the publishing firm of Harper & Row. This job might have panned out, but Waite, separated from his wife and suffering an identity crisis, felt the need to "prove himself" by entering a tougher, more competitive field. Thus, at the age of 30, Waite began taking acting lessons. His professional debut in the off-Broadway production The Balcony proved so disastrous that it is little wonder he chooses to regard his 1965 Broadway bow in Hogan's Goat as the true beginning of his career. After an excellent showing as Jack Nicholson's impotent brother in Five Easy Pieces (1971) the offers began pouring in. In 1972, Waite was cast as John Walton in the immensely popular TV series The Waltons. During the nine-season run of that ratings bonanza, Waite helped form the Los Angeles Actors' Theatre. He also was prominently featured in the blockbuster miniseries Roots (1977), and wrote and directed (but did not star in) the 1980 film On the Money. His post-Walton credits include the TV series Mississippi (1985) and such films as Cliffhanger (1993). In retrospect, it is fitting that two of Ralph Waite's TV-movies of the 1990s bore the titles Crash and Burn and Sin and Redemption. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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Wikipedia: Ralph Waite
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Ralph Waite
Born June 22, 1928 (age 81)
White Plains, New York

Ralph Waite (born June 22, 1929) is an American actor. His most famous role may be John Walton Sr. on the 1970s CBS program The Waltons and he is also well known for his portrayal of the slaver first mate Slater in the mini-series Roots. He also more recently appeared on the HBO series Carnivàle. He is currently playing the recurring role of Father Matt on the daytime serial Days of our Lives.

Contents

Personal life

Waite, the oldest of five children, was born in White Plains, New York, the son of Esther (née Mitchell) and Ralph H. Waite, a construction engineer.[1] Before becoming an actor, he graduated from Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, and briefly became a social worker. He then earned a master's degree from Yale University Divinity School and was a Congregational minister and religious editor before deciding on a career in acting.

He was a member of the Peninsula Players summer theater program during the 1963 season.[2]

Ralph Waite has been married three times; two of his marriages ended in divorce. He had three daughters from his first marriage. One of his daughters died when she was nine years old. His stepson, Liam Waite, is also an actor.

Congressional races

Waite ran unsuccessfully for Congress as a Democrat three times: in 1990 he challenged veteran GOP incumbent Al McCandless in the Riverside County based 37th district, narrowly losing by five percentage points. In 1998 he ran in the special election for the Palm Springs based 44th district left vacant by the death of incumbent Republican Sonny Bono. He got trounced in that election by Mary Bono, Sonny's widow, and lost to her by a similarly wide margin again that November.

Electoral history

Year Office Democrat Votes Pct Republican Votes Pct
1990 U.S House of Representatives
District 37		 Jeffrey Jacobs 29%
Ralph Waite 71%		 103,961 44.8% Bud Mathewson 27%
Al McCandless 73%		 115,469 49.8%
1998 U.S House of Representatives
District 44 (special election)		 Ralph Waite 24,228 28.8% Mary Bono 53,755 64%
1998 U.S House of Representatives
District 39 (general election)		 Ralph Waite 57,697 35.7% Mary Bono 97,013 60.1%

Filmography

1960s

1970s

1980s

  • Angel City (1980)
  • OHMS (the movie) (1980)
  • On the Nickel (1980)
  • The Gentleman Bandit (1981)
  • A Day for Thanks on Walton's Mountain (1982)
  • A Wedding on Walton's Mountain (1982)
  • Mother's Day on Waltons Mountain (1982)
  • The Mississippi (1983) Ben Walker
  • A Good Sport (1984)
  • Growing Pains (1984) Rob
  • Crime of Innocence (1985) Frank Hayward
  • Reading Rainbow (1987)
  • Good Old Boy: A Delta Boyhood (1988)
  • Murder, She Wrote (1989) DA Paul Robbins
  • Red Earth, White Earth (1989) Martin

1990s

2000s

As director

As producer

As writer

References

  1. ^ Ralph Waite Biography (1928?-)
  2. ^ Peninsula Players 65th Anniversary Program, 1999

External links


This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 

 

Copyrights:

Actor. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Ralph Waite".  Read more