Ray Wise
Born in Portland, Oregon, Ray Wise got his start in 1970 on the soap opera “Love of Life,” taped in New York City. After playing the role of Jamie Rawlins for six years, he decided to make the move to California, where he began landing guest appearances on night time series such as “Charlie's Angels,” “Barnaby Jones” and “Lou Grant” before joining the cast of the hit CBS series “Dallas” in 1982 as Blair Sullivan. Although he was only with the show for one year, non-stop guest appearances followed on various primetime series such as “T.J. Hooker,” “Hart to Hart,” “Remington Steele,” “The A-Team,” “Scarecrow and Mrs. King,” “L.A. Law” and “Walker, Texas Ranger,” as well as a year-long stint on ABC's “The Colbys” in 1986.
Meanwhile, Ray began racking up credits on the big screen, starting with small parts and working his way up to supporting roles in films such as Wes Craven's “The Swamp Thing” (1982), “The Journey of Natty Gann” (1985) and “RoboCop” (1987). In 1988, he was a regular on “Knot's Landing” before scoring the role of Leland Palmer on the new series “Twin Peaks.” Though it only ran one season, the show was immensely popular and brought newfound attention Ray's way. He reprised the role in the feature film “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me” (1992).
In 1999, he volunteered his time to play the lead in “Pennyweight,” a short film by the directing team of Efram Potelle and Kyle Rankin. When the two young directors made their feature film debut with “The Battle of Shaker Heights” (2003), they repaid the favor by casting Ray in a substantial role.
Ray appeared in two other films released the same year: “Jeepers Creepers 2” and “Dead End,” as well as making a guest appearance during the final season of the WB teen series “Dawson's Creek.” He continues to work non-stop both in feature films and on television. More recently, he played a role in the movie sequel, “God's Not Dead 2” (2016). He starred at the Devil on the hit comedy series “Reaper,” and appeared in the new season of “Twin Peaks” this past summer.
Ray has a son and daughter with his wife, Kass McClaskey.