Raymond Herbert "Ray" Wise is an American actor. Some of his best-known
roles include Leland Palmer in Twin Peaks, henchman Leon C. Nash in RoboCop,
Jack Taggart Sr. in Jeepers Creepers 2, the Devil in the CW television series
Reaper, Donald Wadsworth in Suburban Gothic and Hal Gardner in season 5 of
24. Personal life
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
maternal side. He grew up in a religious family; during his childhood he went to
a Romanian Baptist church in Akron and later moved to a Methodist church.
Career = Television=
Wise is best known for his role as Laura Palmer's father Leland in Twin Peaks. In
the late sixties and seventies, Wise played attorney Jamie Rollins on the
soap opera, Love of Life for seven years and nearly 950 episodes. 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 1987, Wise played Tom Gunther, Catherine Chandler's boyfriend,
in the pilot episode of the TV series Beauty and the Beast. In addition to
Twin Peaks, Wise has played several roles in science fiction. He played the
harried dad in the horror film Dead End. He made an appearance as Liko in the
Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Who Watches the Watchers", and later
played 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 cast mate Sherilyn Fenn in the NBC telemovie Liz: The Elizabeth Taylor
Story. Wise played 1950s CBS News anchor Don Hollenbeck in the 2005 film Good
Night, and Good Luck. He also starred as the Devil on the TV series Reaper. In
recent years, 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 the
Emmy-winning Fox series 24 in 2006. In August 2006, Wise made a guest
appearance in the Fox TV series Bones as the primary suspect of the first episode
of the second season, and in the pilot episode of Burn Notice. In Season 8,
Episode 13 of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, 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 was a guest star in Psych and played the
lead as Avery in a psychological thriller, Iodine, in 2009. 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 has appeared in several episodes of Mad Men as Ken Cosgrove's father-in-law
Ed Baxter, the CEO of Corning. He appeared in "Chinese Wall", "At the
Codfish Ball", "Commissions and Fees" and "Severance".
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 will star in the lead of the upcoming Mike Mendez
thriller film Ov3rk!ll. Wise appeared in Season 4 of Chuck, and
the hit 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. 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 in drag as a cross-dressing judge.
Wise made an appearance in 2013 in the TV series How I Met Your Mother as Robin
Scherbatsky's father, Robin Scherbatsky Sr. He appeared in 6 episodes of the
series in total. Ray prominently appeared in the music video "Wishes" for
the group Beach House. It was directed by Eric Wareheim and features Ray in a
kind of dreamy, demented football halftime show. He is currently appearing
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 Sept. 2015. He played the mayor in the
1st season of Deadbeat. On September 29, 2015 he made guest appearance on "Fresh
Off the Boat". = Film=
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. Wise played the role
of entrepreneur/millionaire Dalton Voss in the movie The Chase. He played the
role of Bart's father Harrison in the movie The Battle of Shaker Heights. He
also played the role of Jack Taggart in the horror film Jeepers Creepers 2. In
2003, he 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. Chillerama - 2011
He appeared in Revelation Road: The Beginning of the End - 2013 as Franks.
He played Major Braxton Tanner in the movie Big Ass Spider! and was in
Suburban Gothic. 2014 appeared in the documentary horror film Digging Up the
Marrow under the direction of Adam Green.
= Voice work= As a voice actor, Wise played Perry
White in the movie Superman: Doomsday. = 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= Wise is currently starring in an
original Chipotle web series titled Farmed and Dangerous; he plays Buck
Marshall in the satirical black comedy-type situation comedy.
References 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 the Internet Movie Database
Ray Wise interview at sci-fi-online.com Ray Wise interview at time out Chicago
Ray Wise Transcript Interview 12 December 1990 NPR