Ray Wise

Ray Wise
Wise in 2011
Born	Raymond Herbert Wise (1947-08-20) August 20, 1947 Akron, Ohio, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1969–present
Spouses	Juliet Burr ​ ​ (m. 1974; div. 1977)​ Kass McClaskey ​ (m. 1978)​
Children	2

Raymond Herbert Wise (born August 20, 1947) is an American actor best known for his role as Leland Palmer in Twin Peaks (1990–1991, 2017) and its prequel film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992). He has appeared in films such as Swamp Thing (1982), The Journey of Natty Gann (1985), RoboCop (1987), Bob Roberts (1992), Jeepers Creepers 2 (2003), Good Night, and Good Luck (2005), X-Men: First Class (2011) and God's Not Dead 2 (2016).

Wise's other television roles include Vice President Hal Gardner in 24 (2006), The Devil in Reaper (2007–2009), and Marvin in Fresh Off the Boat (2015–2020). He is also known for acting in projects produced by the comedy duo Tim & Eric, most notably his guest-starring role as Grill Vogel in Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! (2008).

Early life

Wise was born in Akron, Ohio, on August 29, 1947, graduated from Garfield High School in 1965 and attended Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. He is of Romanian descent on his maternal side. He grew up in a religious family; in the past he went to a Romanian Baptist church in Akron and later moved to a Methodist church.

Career

Television

Wise at the 2014 Fan Expo Canada

In the late 1960s and 70s, Wise played attorney Jamie Rollins in the soap opera Love of Life for seven years and nearly 950 episodes. In 1987, Wise played Tom Gunther, Catherine Chandler's boyfriend, in the pilot episode of the TV series Beauty and the Beast. Wise is best known for his role as Laura Palmer's father Leland in Twin Peaks. In addition to Twin Peaks, Wise has played several roles in science fiction. He made an appearance as Liko in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Who Watches the Watchers", later playing Arturis in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Hope and Fear".

He appeared in the Season 7 episode "The Flame" of Diagnosis: Murder. He was featured in three episodes of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! as Grill Vogel, the presenter of a fictitious instructional video series called "Business Hugs".

In 1995, Wise was reunited with Twin Peaks castmate Sherilyn Fenn in the NBC telemovie Liz: The Elizabeth Taylor Story. He also starred as the Devil on the TV series Reaper. Wise has appeared on a number of political-themed television series and films. He briefly appeared on The West Wing as California governor Gabriel "Gabe" Tillman, and played Vice President Hal Gardner on 24 in 2006. In August 2006, Wise made a guest appearance in the series Bones as the primary suspect of the first episode of the second season ("The Titan on the Tracks"), and in the pilot episode of Burn Notice. In Season 8, episode 13 of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2007), Wise guest starred as the head of a company testing pesticides on little children. Wise has also guest starred in two episodes of The Closer, as lawyer Tom Blanchard. He starred in Charmed as the upper level demon Ludlow, who runs a school for the Source Of All Evil in the episode "Lost and Bound". He had a small role in one episode of the sixth season of Dawson's Creek, playing Roger Stepateck. Wise starred in the 2009 SyFy original movie Infestation. He played the lead as Avery in a psychological thriller, Iodine, in 2009. He was a guest star on Psych and in 2010, in a special episode of Psych titled "Dual Spires", he joined his fellow Twin Peaks alumni Dana Ashbrook, Robyn Lively, Lenny Von Dohlen, Sheryl Lee, Catherine E. Coulson, and Sherilyn Fenn in a spoof of Twin Peaks.

Wise appeared in several episodes of Mad Men as Ken Cosgrove's father-in-law Ed Baxter, the CEO of Corning, Inc. He appeared in "Chinese Wall" (Season 4, Episode 11), "At the Codfish Ball" (Season 5, Episode 7), "Commissions and Fees" (Season 5, Episode 12), "To Have and to Hold" (Season 6, Episode 4) and "Severance" (Season 7, Episode 8).

In 2010, Wise guest-starred as fictitious sports agent Bobby Fox alongside a special guest appearance from real life ex-Yankees manager Joe Torre on the TV series Castle, in the Season 2 episode "Suicide Squeeze". He also guest starred on Dollhouse as Howard, a higher-up in the Dollhouse organization. He stars in Kyle Rankin's post-apocalyptic horror thriller film Nuclear Family. Wise was announced the lead of the Mike Mendez thriller film Ov3rk!ll.

Wise appeared in Season 4 of Chuck and in the FX television show Wilfred as a popular TV personality. He was cast in the part of Robin Scherbatsky's father on How I Met Your Mother in December 2010 (after Eric Braeden declined to reprise his role in a cameo appearance), and ultimately appeared in 6 episodes of the series in total. Ray made a cameo appearance as a modeling agent in episode four of season 2 of Workaholics.

Wise made an appearance in 2012 in the TV series Rizzoli & Isles (Season 3, Episode 7, "Crazy for You") in drag as a cross-dressing judge. That same year, Ray played John Nelson, A disturbed ex-mortician obsessed with trying to help his wife Linda in the Criminal Minds Season 8 episode "God Complex".

Wise prominently appeared in the music video "Wishes" for the group Beach House. It was directed by Eric Wareheim and features Wise performing in a surreal football halftime show.

Wise appeared as Andy Rooney parody Skip Reming on Newsreaders. In January 2014, he was hired to play the character of Ian Ward on the long running soap The Young and the Restless. He returned to Y&R in September 2015. He played the mayor in the first season of Deadbeat. Since 2014, he has appeared in multiple series on ABC. He had a recurring role as Marvin in the first two seasons of Fresh Off the Boat before being promoted to series regular for seasons three through six. He also appeared in the first two seasons of Agent Carter as comic book character Hugh Jones.

In 2016, Wise appeared in the Netflix series Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life. He portrayed Jack Smith, an old friend of Richard Gilmore, who becomes the boyfriend or companion of widow Emily Gilmore.

In 2017, he appeared as a guest in the TV series Fargo, as Paul Marrane, a kitten-handler and metaphysical punisher, in the episodes "The Law of Non-Contradiction" and "Who Rules the Land of Denial?"

Film

He played the character of Dr. Alec Holland in the 1982 film Swamp Thing, directed by Wes Craven and based upon the comic book series of the same name. Dr. Holland is the man who becomes the titular character after his lab is destroyed and he is left for dead. The actual Swamp Thing character was played by Dick Durock.

In 1985, Wise was cast as Sol Gann, father to Natty Gann in the Disney film The Journey of Natty Gann, directed by Jeremy Paul Kagan, and then appeared as henchman Leon C. Nash in RoboCop (1987). He also had roles in Season of Fear (1989), The Rift (1990), Bob Roberts (1992), Grey Knight (1993) and Rising Sun (1993).

He then played the roles of entrepreneur/millionaire Dalton Voss in The Chase (1994), Dr. Stripler in Powder (1995), Sheriff Blaidek in Evasive Action (1998), and Bart's father Harrison in The Battle of Shaker Heights (2003). The same year he played Jack Taggart in the horror film Jeepers Creepers 2, and portrayed father and husband Frank Harrington in the horror film Dead End.

In 2005, he appeared as newscaster and commentator Don Hollenbeck in Good Night, and Good Luck, directed by George Clooney. In 2007 he appeared in The Flock as Robert Still. In 2008 he had a role in the horror remake One Missed Call. In the year 2011, Wise played the role of United States Secretary of State in X-Men: First Class. He appeared in Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie as Dr. Doone Struts, the leader of the Shrim Healing Center. He appeared in Revelation Road: The Beginning of the End as Franks. He played Major Braxton Tanner in the movie Big Ass Spider! (2013). He was in Brother's Keeper (2013) and was in Suburban Gothic (2014).

In 2014 Wise appeared in the documentary horror film Digging Up the Marrow under the direction of Adam Green. In 2016, Wise starred as attorney Peter Kane in the film God's Not Dead 2, who represents the ACLU in its fight to have the protagonist, Grace Wesley (Melissa Joan Hart), convicted of proselytizing in a public school.

Voice work

As a voice actor, Wise played Perry White in the movie Superman: Doomsday. He also plays Commissioner Gordon in the animated film adaptation of The Killing Joke.

Video games

He is also known for portraying Michael Dugan, President of the United States, in the full-motion video cutscenes for the computer real-time strategy game Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 and its expansion, Yuri's Revenge.

Web series

In 2014, Wise starred in an original Chipotle web series titled Farmed and Dangerous; he played Buck Marshall in the satirical black comedy-type situation comedy. In 2018, Wise made a guest appearance in the second volume of Hyper RPG's horror anthology RPG, 10 Candles, explaining to the party the mysteries of the town of Kolob. He reprised that role in 2019 for the opening credits of 'Kollok 1991', another RPG series by Hyper RPG.

Personal life

Wise has been married to film producer Kass McClaskey since 1978. They have two children together: a son, Gannon McClaskey Wise, born in 1985, who is an actor and writer; and a daughter, Kyna Wise, born in 1987, who is also an actress and a singer. From 1974 until 1977, Wise had been married to actress Juliet Burr.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1969	Dare the Devil	David Keller
1982	Swamp Thing	Dr. Alec Holland
	Cat People	Soap Opera Man
1985	The Journey of Natty Gann	Sol Gann
1987	RoboCop	Leon Nash
1989	Season of Fear	Fred Drummond
	Race for Glory	Jack Davis
1990	The Rift	Robbins
1992	Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me	Leland Palmer
	Bob Roberts	Chet MacGregor
1993	Ghost Brigade	Col. George Thalman	Direct-to-video
	Rising Sun	Senator John Morton
1994	The Chase	Dalton Voss
	Body Shot	Dwight Frye
	The Crew	Charles Pierce
1995	Powder	Dr. Aaron Stripler
1998	Evasive Action	Sheriff Wes Blaidek
1999	Pennyweight	Mr. Pennyweight	Short film
2000	Closing the Deal	Ford Williams
2001	Almost Salinas	Jack Tynan
	Two Can Play That Game	Bill Parker
2002	Landspeed	Brian Sanger
	Scream at the Sound of the Beep	Brother Jake
2003	Dead End	Frank Harrington
	Jeepers Creepers 2	Jack Taggart Sr.
	The Battle of Shaker Heights	Harrison
2005	Sharkskin 6	Sam
	The Rain Makers	Harris
	Good Night, and Good Luck	Don Hollenbeck	Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
	Cyxork 7	Kommander 88
2006	The Substance of Things Hoped For	Dr. Lessing
	Peaceful Warrior	Doctor Hayden
2007	The Election	Peter	Short film
	The Flock	Bobby Stiles
	Hellholes	Professor Klume	Short film
	Superman: Doomsday	Perry White	Voice Direct-to-DVD
2008	Reservations	Mitch
	One Missed Call	Ted Summers
	AM1200	Harry Jones	Short film
	AmericanEast	Agent Stevens
2009	Pandemic	General Matthews
	Infestation	Ethan
	Stuntmen	Jack Strongbow
	Iodine	Avery
	Love at First Hiccup	Roger
2010	Darnell Dawkins: Mouth Guitar Legend	Wade Dawkins
2011	Black Velvet	Black Velvet
	X-Men: First Class	Secretary of State
	Chillerama	Dr. Weems	Segment: "Wadzilla"
	Rosewood Lane	Det. Danny Briggs
2012	Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie	Dr. Doone Struts
	Excision	Principal Campbell
	The Aggression Scale	Bellavance
	Crazy Eyes	Zach's Father
	FDR: American Badass!	Douglas MacArthur
	The Butterfly Room	Nick
	Atlas Shrugged: Part II	Head of State Thompson
	Brother White	Pastor Johnny Kingman
	Posey	Dr. Shap	Short film
2013	Wrong Cops	Captain Andy
	Inventing Adam	J.B.
	Big Ass Spider!	Major Braxton C. Tanner
	Revelation Road: Beginning of the End	Frank
	Lionhead	Jimmy
	Revelation Road 2: The Sea of Glass and Fire	Frank
	Out West	Phillip Alcott
	Brother's Keeper	Herbert Leemaster
	No God, No Master	A. Mitchell Palmer
2014	Away from Here	Paul
	Suburban Gothic	Donald
	Land of Leopold	Deece Warren
	Digging Up the Marrow	William Dekker
	Dead Still	Wenton Davis
	Guardian Angel	Attorney Kaufman
	Reflections	Grandpa	Short film
2015	Jurassic City	Warden Lewis
	The Lazarus Effect	Mr. Wallace
	Night of the Living Deb	Frank Waverly
	Taking Flight	Nono	Voice Short film
	The Breakup Girl	Bob Baker
	The Specialist	The Specialist	Short film
	Unnatural	Victor Clobirch
2016	Halloweed	Judge Pilmington
	God's Not Dead 2	Peter Kane
	The Bronx Bull	Father Joseph
	Batman: The Killing Joke	Commissioner Gordon	Voice
	Star Trek: Captain Pike	Admiral Joshua Pike
2017	Shattered	Forest Burnett
2019	Tone-Deaf	Michael
	Chain of Death	Michael
	Unholy 'Mole	The Devil	Short film
	To Your Last Death	Cyrus DeKalb	Voice
	Big Fan Begins	Ticket Man	Short film
2020	Beast Mode	Trammel Steadfast
2021	King Knight	Merlin
2023	Poolman	Van Patterson
	The Blue Rose	Mr. Vallens
2024	God's Not Dead: In God We Trust	Pete Kane

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1970–1976	Love of Life	Jamie Rawlins #2
1978	Charlie's Angels	Evan Wilcox	Episode: "Winning Is for Losers"
	Barnaby Jones	Malcolm Elliot	Episode: "Stages of Fear"
	Tartuffe	Damis	Television film
1981	Lou Grant	Bart Franklin	Episode: "Strike"
	Madame X	Bellman	Uncredited Television film
1982	Dallas	Blair Sullivan	8 episodes
1982–1983	Days of Our Lives	Hal Rummley
1983	The Mississippi	Cole	Episode: "Joey"
1984	T. J. Hooker	Harrison Mackenzie	Episode: "Hot Property"
	Blue Thunder	J.D. Kraft	Episode: "Payload"
	Emerald Point N.A.S.	Travis	2 episodes
	Hart to Hart	Dick Braddon	Episode: "Larsen's Last Jump"
	Trapper John, M.D.	Dr. Henry Speiner	Episode: "Aunt Mildred Is Watching"
	Riptide	Les Carter	Episode: "Beat the Box"
	Remington Steele	Schwimmer	Episode: "A Pocketful of Steele"
1985	The A-Team	Phillip Chadway	Episode: "Lease with an Option to Die"
1986	Scarecrow and Mrs. King	Frank Duran	Episode: "The Pharaoh's Engineer"
	Airwolf	Victor Resnick	Episode: "Hawke's Run"
	Stingray	Dr. John Whitaker	Episode: "Ether"
	The Colbys	Spiro Koralis	5 episodes
	Hunter	Alex Parker	Episode: "Crime of Passion"
	Condor	Christopher Proctor	Television film
1987	Beauty and the Beast	Tom	Episode: "Once Upon a Time"
	Private Eye	Senator McNeill	Episode: "Blue Movie"
1988	Knots Landing	The Dealer	5 episodes
	L.A. Law	Walter Platt	2 episodes
	The Taking of Flight 847: The Uli Derickson Story	Phil Maresca	Television film
1989	Moonlighting	Murderer	Episode: "Eine Kleine Nacht Murder"
	Star Trek: The Next Generation	Liko	Episode: "Who Watches the Watchers"
	Jake and the Fatman	Harry McGinn	Episode: "Dancing in the Dark"
1990–1991	Twin Peaks	Leland Palmer	18 episodes
1992	Swamp Thing	Guthrie	Episode: "Never Alone"
1993	The Secrets of Lake Success	Henry Fleming	3 episodes
1993–1994	Second Chances	Judge Jim Stinson	6 episodes
1994	Walker, Texas Ranger	Garrett Carlson	Episode: "Stolen Lullaby"
	The Larry Sanders Show	Lloyd Simon	Episode: "You're Having My Baby"
1995	Liz: The Elizabeth Taylor Story	Mike Todd	Television film
	Dream On	Maddox March	Episode: "Significant Author"
	Courthouse	Congressman Laderman	Episode: "One Flew Over the Courthouse"
1996–1997	Savannah	Edward Burton	34 episodes
1998	The Wonderful World of Disney	Randolph Pratt	Episode: "The Garbage Picking Field Goal Kicking Philadelphia Phenomenon"
	Star Trek: Voyager	Arturis	Episode: "Hope and Fear"
1997–1998	Sleepwalkers	McCaig	2 episodes
1998	Beverly Hills, 90210	Daniel Hunter	2 episodes
	Vengeance Unlimited	Jack Schiller	Episode: "Cruel and Unusual"
	Sports Night	Evans	Episode: "Mary Pat Shelby"
1999	Diagnosis: Murder	John Parkinson	Episode: "The Flame"
2000	Profiler	James Perrone	Episode: "Quid Pro Quo"
	Popular	Barton	Episode: "What Makes Sammy Run"
2000–2001	Resurrection Blvd.	Jack Mornay	12 episodes
2001	V.I.P.	Judge Kreiger	Episode: "Bodyguards"
	RoboCop: Prime Directives	Leon C. Nash (archive footage, uncredited)	Episode: "Resurrection"
	Judging Amy	Atty. Rhodes	Episode: "The Last Word"
	Dead Last	Robert Cahill	Episode: "Jane's Exit"
2002	Charmed	Ludlow	Episode: "Lost and Bound"
	She Spies	Ambassador Blaine	Episode: "Daddy's Girl"
	Presidio Med		Episode: "Milagros"
2003	Dawson's Creek	Roger Stepavich	Episode: "All the Right Moves"
2004	JAG	Congressman Marvin Bolton	Episode: "Retrial"
2005	The West Wing	Governor Tillman D-CA	Episode: "La Palabra"
2006	24	Vice President Hal Gardner	6 episodes
	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Ernest Chase	Episode: "Rashomama"
	The Closer	Tom Blanchard	Episodes: "Out of Focus," "The Other Woman"
	Bones	Rick Turco	Episode: "The Titan on the Tracks"
2007	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Roger Hanley	Episode: "Loophole"
	Shark	Lloyd Holcomb	Episode: "Starlet Fever"
	Six Degrees	Henry Crane	Episode: "Sedgewick's"
	Burn Notice	Mr. Pyne	Episode: "Pilot"
2007–2009	Reaper	The Devil	31 episodes
2008	Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!	Grill Vogel	2 episodes
2009	Numb3rs	Mitch Langford	Episode: "Guilt Trip"
	Drop Dead Diva	Frank Dodd	Episode: "What If?"
	Dollhouse	Howard Lipman	Episode: "The Left Hand"
2009–2010 2014	Psych	Father Peter Westley / Judge Horace Leland	3 episodes
2010	Castle	Bobby Fox	Episode: "Suicide Squeeze"
	Suitemates	Hans Ahnnansoahnn	2 episodes
	The Good Guys	Buddy	Episode: "Common Enemies"
2010–2015	Mad Men	Ed Baxter	5 episodes
2011	Hawaii Five-0	Morris Brown	Episode: "Powa Maka Moana"
	Mr. Sunshine	Macaulay	Episode: "Heather's Sister"
	Chuck	Riley	3 episodes
	Wilfred	Colt St. Cloud	Episode: "Identity"
	Workaholics	Kyle Walsh	Episode: "Model Kombat"
	Easy to Assemble	Hendrik	3 episodes
	90210	Dean Thomas	Episode: "It's the Great Masquerade, Naomi Clark"
2011–2014	How I Met Your Mother	Robin Scherbatsky Sr.	6 episodes
2012	Battleground	D-Day / Tak's Father	2 episodes
	NCIS	Wayne Tobett	Episode: "Secrets"
	Holliston	Landlord	Episode: "Camera Rental: Part 1"
	The Mentalist	Dennis Victor	Episode: "Red Rover, Red Rover"
	Rizzoli & Isles	Judge Eugene Allen	Episode: "Crazy for You"
	Criminal Minds	John Nelson	Episode: "God Complex"
2013	Body of Proof	Michael Davis	Episode: "Mob Mentality"
	Perception	Martin Sullivan	Episode: "Toxic"
	Twisted Tales	Mongo the Magnificent	Episode: "Mongo's Magik Mirror"
	High School USA!	Seymour Barren / Cassandra's Dad	Voices 3 episodes
2013–2014	Kroll Show	Network Executive / Wendy's Father	3 episodes
2013–2015	Newsreaders	Skip Reming	19 episodes
2014	Farmed and Dangerous	Buck Marshall	4 episodes
	Deadbeat	Mayor Meyer	Episode: "Sixty Feet Under"
	Hit the Floor		Episode: "Winner Takes All"
2014–2016, 2024	The Young and the Restless	Ian Ward	56 episodes
2015–2016	Agent Carter	Hugh Jones	4 episodes
2015–2020	Fresh Off the Boat	Marvin	73 episodes
2016	Relationship Status	Grace's Dad	Episode: "The Catch"
	All the Way	Senator Everett Dirksen	Television film
	Comedy Bang! Bang!	Psychologist / Dr. Frankenstein	2 episodes
	Adam Ruins Everything	Netflix Executive	Episode: "Adam Ruins Hollywood"
	Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life	Jack Smith	3 episodes
	Hitting The Breaks	Theodore 'Teddy' Montclair	2 episodes
2017	Fargo	Paul Marrane	2 episodes
	Idiotsitter	Himself	Episode: "Rush, Rush"
	Twin Peaks	Leland Palmer	2 episodes
	Tim and Eric's Bedtime Stories	The Duke	Episode: "The Duke"
2017–2018	Neo Yokio	Old Man	Voice 2 episodes
2019	Hot Streets	Plunch Runch	Voice Episode: "The Moon Masters"
	Chilling Adventures of Sabrina	Enoch	Episode: "Chapter Sixteen: Blackwood"
2021	All Rise	Richard Walker	Episode: "Georgia"
	Launchpad	Headmaster Gustafson	Episode: "Dinner Is Served"
	Physical	Sheila's Father	Episode: "Let's Not and Say We Did"
	Home Economics	Frank	Episode: "49ers Foam Finger, $7"
	Psych 3: This Is Gus	Father Peter Westley	Television film

Video game

Year	Title	Role
2000	Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2	President Michael Dugan
2001	Command & Conquer: Yuri's Revenge	President Michael Dugan

Web series

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2018	10 Candles	Kolob Council Member	Episode: "The Town: Finale"
2019	Kollok 1991	Video narrator	Intro sequence

Audio

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2021	Batman: The Audio Adventures	Announcer	Podcast

Further reading

• Voisin, Scott, "Character Kings: Hollywood's Familiar Faces Discuss the Art & Business of Acting." BearManor Media, 2009. ISBN 978-1-59393-342-5.

External links

• Ray Wise at IMDb
• Ray Wise interview at sci-fi-online.com
• Ray Wise interview at time out Chicago
• Ray Wise Transcript Interview 12 December 1990 NPR