Career

At an early age, his elder sister Jo took him to an audition at Ravinia Festival where American Conservatory Theater was staging Luigi Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author. He auditioned and got the part.

He is one of the original co-founders of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, Illinois. Perry and schoolmates Gary Sinise and Terry Kinney started the company in one end of the cafeteria at Highland Park High School and later moved it to a small space in the Immaculate Conception Church in Highland Park. It has since grown into a notable national theater company whose alumni include John Malkovich, John Mahoney, and Joan Allen. Perry remains an Executive Artistic Director along with co-founders Kinney and Sinise.

After spending nearly two decades with Steppenwolf, Perry made the move to Los Angeles in 1987 to pursue film and television work. Perry is perhaps best known as Inspector Harvey Leek (a diehard Grateful Dead fan) on the CBS police drama series Nash Bridges. He was a tough superior to Kevin Bacon's detective in the thriller Wild Things (1998). Many of his television and film credits include The Human Stain (2003), Hard Promises (1991) and The Grifters (1990) as well as appearances on My So-Called Life (1994), The West Wing (1999), The Practice (2003), Lost (2005), Cold Case (2006), Raines (2007), and several episodes of Grey's Anatomy (2005) as Meredith Grey's father. He replaced John Billingsley in the role of Terrence Steadman in the critically acclaimed TV show Prison Break.

Perry has also been in multiple stage productions. These include Time of your Life (in San Francisco and Seattle), Grapes of Wrath (Broadway and London), and The Caretaker (Broadway). He starred in the Tracy Letts play August: Osage County on Broadway, which originated at Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago. In 2012, he appeared Off Broadway playing Christopher, the aggressive father in an intellectual, though dysfunctional, British family, in the U.S. premiere of the award-winning play Tribes by Nina Raine.

As of 2012, Perry starred in the ABC drama series Scandal as Cyrus Beene. The series debuted on April 5, 2012 as a mid-season replacement in the 2011-12 television season. The series was created by Shonda Rhimes and is currently in its fifth season.

Personal life

Perry was born in Highland Park, Illinois, where his father was a teacher at Highland Park High School. He graduated from Illinois State University in 1978. In 2011, Perry received an honorary doctorate from Illinois State University in recognition of his extraordinary contributions to the field of theatre.

Perry is the youngest of three siblings. Sisters Jo and Janice are both deceased. His nephew, Jai Henry serves as his social media assistant.

Perry was married to actress Laurie Metcalf from 1983 until 1992. They had a child, actress Zoe Perry, together in 1984, but they subsequently divorced. He is currently married to Grey's Anatomy's casting director, Linda Lowy, with whom he has a daughter named Leah.

Filmography

• Remember My Name (1978) as Harry
• A Wedding (1978) as Bunky Lemay
• Say Goodnight, Gracie (1983)
• Tales from the Hollywood Hills: Closed Set (1988) as Bud
• Three Fugitives (1989) as Orderly Two
• Family Ties as David Simmons (1 episode, 1989)
• Columbo: Murder, Smoke, and Shadows as Leonard Fisher (1989)
• Roe vs. Wade (1989)
• The Final Days (1989) as Staffer
• The Grifters (1990) as Drunk
• Shannon's Deal (1 episode, 1990)
• Equal Justice as ADA Warren (1 episode, 1990)
• The Flash as Charlie (1 episode, 1990)
• thirtysomething as David Hall (2 episodes, 1989-1991)
• American Playhouse as Noah Joad (1 episode, 1991)
• Brooklyn Bridge as Joel Jacobson (2 episodes, 1991)
• Civil Wars (1 episode, 1991)
• Hard Promises (1991) as Pinky
• Life on the Edge (1992) as Ray Nelson
• Storyville (1992) as Peter Dandridge
• A Private Matter (1992) as Randall Everett
• Casualties of Love: The Long Island Lolita Story (1993) as Amy's Attorney
• Murder in the Heartland (1993) as Earl Heflin
• L.A. Law as Jonah Burgee (3 episodes, 1993)
• Naked Instinct (1993) as Frat Boy
• Body of Evidence (1993) as Gabe
• Playmaker (1994) .... Allen
• My So-Called Life as Richard Katimski (4 episodes, 1994-1995)
• Kingfish: A Story of Huey P. Long (1995) as Earl Long
• Chicago Hope as Gilbert Weeks (3 episodes, 1995)
• American Gothic as Artie Healy (1 episode, 1996)
• Into Thin Air: Death on Everest (1997) as Doug Hansen
• Wild Things (1998) as Bryce Hunter
• Lansky (1999) as American Lawyer
• Nash Bridges as Insp. Harvey Leek (122 episodes, 1996-2001)
• Frasier as John Clayton (1 episode, 2002)
• NYPD Blue as Gordon Dillit (1 episode, 2003)
• The Human Stain (2003) as Tennis Player
• ER as Officer Mitch Palnick (1 episode, 2003)
• The District as Lemma (1 episode, 2003)
• The West Wing as Burt Ganz (1 episode, 2003)
• The Practice as Randy Markham (1 episode, 2003)
• Lost as Frank 'Sawyer' Duckett (1 episode, 2005)
• Law & Order: Trial by Jury as Andrew Soin (1 episode, 2005)
• Numb3rs as Morton Standbury (1 episode, 2005)
• Invasion as Terrence Gale (1 episode, 2005)
• Close to Home as Uncle Bill (1 episode, 2005)
• Cold Case as Eric Witt (1 episode, 2006)
• Crossing Jordan as Kyle Everett (1 episode, 2006)
• The Valley of Light (2007) as Taylor Bowers
• Prison Break as Terrence Steadman (3 episodes, 2006-2007)
• Raines as Harry Tucker (1 episode, 2007)
• The Last Supper: 13 Men of Courage (2007) as Bartholomew
• Side Order of Life as Reno (1 episode, 2007)
• American Dad! as Mr. Dawson (1 episode, 2007)
• Diminished Capacity (2008) as Casey Dean
• Saving Grace as Det. Walter Eckley (1 episode, 2009)
• Eleventh Hour as Doctor Mal Sheppard (1 episode, 2009)
• Fringe as Joseph Slater (1 episode, 2009)
• CSI: NY as Judge (1 episode, 2010)
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation as George Stark / (2 episodes, 2003-2010)
• Outsourced" (1 episode, 2010)
• Grey's Anatomy as Thatcher Grey (14 episodes, 2006-2011)
• Picture Paris (2011) as Keith
• The Anniversary at Shallow Creek (2011) as Cashier
• The Chicago Code as David Argyle (1 episode, 2011)
• Scandal as Cyrus Beene (2012-present)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]