Life and career

Welsh was born in Edmonton, Alberta, to a father who worked for the Canadian National Railway. He grew up in Alberta and studied drama at school. He later moved to Montreal and attended the National Theatre School. Following graduation, he auditioned for the Stratford Festival in Ontario and then spent the first seven years of his career on stage.

Welsh has portrayed historical figures including Thomas E. Dewey, Colin Thatcher, Harry S. Truman (twice), Thomas Edison, James "Scotty" Reston, General Harry Crerar and James Baker. He has made guest appearances on the acclaimed TV series Due South and Slings and Arrows.

In 1984, he was nominated for a Genie Award as Best Actor for his portrayal of Reno Colt in the film Reno and the Doc, written and directed by Charles Dennis. In 1997, Welsh directed Dennis in the latter's play SoHo Duo at the West Bank Theatre in New York City. In 2003, he was made a Member of the Order of Canada.

His role as the vice-president of the United States in the 2004 environmental disaster film The Day After Tomorrow sparked some controversy due to his physical resemblance to Dick Cheney, who at the time was the real vice-president. Director Roland Emmerich later confirmed that he deliberately chose Welsh for that very reason. Emmerich stated that the character of the vice-president in the film was intended to be a not-so-subtle criticism of the environmental policies of the George W. Bush Administration.

Welsh's son Devon is the lead singer of the musical group Majical Cloudz.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1965	The Overfamiliar Subordinate
1980	F.D.R.: The Last Year (TV)	Thomas E. Dewey
	Phobia	Sgt Wheeler
1983	Hot Money	Parker
	Empire, Inc. (mini TV series)	Sir James Munroe
	Tell Me That You Love Me	David
	Of Unknown Origin	James Hall
1984	Reno and the Doc (TV)	Reno
	Covergirl	Harrison
	Falling in Love	Doctor
1985	The War Boy	Stephan Berecky
	The Cuckoo Bird (TV)	Harry
	The Ray Bradbury Theater (Season 1, episode 1 Marionettes, Inc.)	Crane
	Love & Larceny (TV)
1986	Lost!	Jim
	Murder Sees the Light (TV)	The Evangelist
1987	And Then You Die
	Loyalties	David Sutton
	Radio Days	Radio Voice	voice only
1988	The Murder of Mary Phagan (TV)	Luther Rosser
	The House on Carroll Street	Hackett
	"Crocodile" Dundee II	Brannigan
	Liberace: Behind the Music
	The Twilight Zone (Episode: - Acts of Terror)	Jack Simonson
	Another Woman	Donald
1989	The January Man	Roger Culver	Credited as Ken Welsh
	Love and Hate: The Story of Colin and Joanne Thatcher (TV)	Colin Thatcher
	Physical Evidence	Harry Norton
	Dick Francis: Blood Sport	Harry Teller
1990	The Freshman	Dwight Armstrong
	The Ray Bradbury Theater (Season 4, Episode 7, And the Moon Be Still as Bright) (TV)	Captain Wilder
	The Widowmaker (TV)	Atkinson
	Twin Peaks (TV)	Windom Earle
	Murder Times Seven (TV)	Nick Ruggieri
1992	Eli's Lesson	Uncle Yakub
	Dead Ahead: The Exxon Valdez Disaster (TV)	Sam Skinner
	The Good Fight (TV)	Dick Chandler
1993	Woman on the Run: The Lawrencia Bembenek Story (TV)	Don Eisenberg
	Shattered Trust: The Shari Karney Story (TV)	Judge Norton
1994	Boozecan	Tim
	Death Wish V: The Face of Death	Lt. Mickey King
	Kung Fu: The Legend Continues: episode Temple (TV)	Vance Cavanaugh
	And Then There was One	David Burns
	Timecop	Senator Utley
	Legends of the Fall	Sheriff Tynert
1995	Hiroshima (TV)	President Harry S. Truman
	Kissinger and Nixon (TV)	James 'Scotty' Reston
	The X Files - episode Revelations (TV)	Simon Gates
1996	Portraits of a Killer	Jim Miller
1997	Habitat	Coach Marlowe
	The Wrong Guy	Mr. Nagel
	Edison: The Wizard of Light (TV)	Thomas Edison
	Absolute Power	Sandy Lord
1998	Law & Order - episode Disappeared (TV)	Ben O'Dell
	Thunder Point (TV)	Armstrong
	Thanks of a Grateful Nation (TV)	Sen. Shelby
1999	External Affairs	Michael Riordan
2000	Who Killed Atlanta's Children? (TV)	William Kunstler
	Love Come Down	Ira Rosen
	The Hound of the Baskervilles (TV)	Dr. Watson
	Witchblade (TV)	Joe Siri
2001	The Royal Scandal (TV)	Dr. Watson
	The Sign of Four (TV)	Dr. Watson
	Haven (TV)	Harry Truman
	Focus	Father Crighton
	The Day Reagan Was Shot (TV)	James Baker
2002	The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire (TV)	Dr. Watson
2003	Ice Bound: A Woman's Survival at the South Pole (TV)	Dr. Ben Murdoch
	Eloise at the Plaza (TV)	Sir Wilkes
	The Pentagon Papers (TV)	John McNaughon
	Eloise at Christmastime	Sir Wilkes
2004	Miracle	George Nagobads
	The Wild Guys	Andy
	The Day After Tomorrow	Vice President/President Raymond Becker
	H₂O (TV)	Randall Spear
	The Aviator	Dr. Hepburn
2009	Survival of the Dead	Patrick O'Flynn

• Bailey's Billion$ (2005) as Mouse Delaney
• This Is Wonderland
  • Episode #2.3 (2005) TV Episode
• Tilt
  • The Aftermath (2005 TV Episode) as Seymour Henderson
  • The Whale (2005 TV Episode) as Seymour Henderson
  • Risk Tolerance (2005 TV Episode as Seymour Annisman
  • The Game (2005 TV Episode) as Seymour Henderson
• Our Fathers (2005) (TV) as Bishop Murphy
• Four Brothers (2005) as Robert Bradford
• The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005) (as Ken Welsh) as Dr. Mueller
• The Fog (2005) as Tom Malone
• ReGenesis
  • Spare Parts (2004 TV Episode) as Dr. Shelby Sloane
  • Baby Bomb (2004 TV Episode) as Dr. Shelby Sloane
  • The Face of God (2005 TV Episode) as Dr. Shelby Sloane
• Category 7: The End of the World (2005) (mini TV Series) as Chief of Staff Alan Horst
• Smallville
  • Lexmas (2005 TV Episode) as Drunk Santa
• The Snow Queen (2005) (TV) as King
• Above and Beyond (2005) (mini TV Series, in post-production) as Lord Beaverbrook
• Kit Kittredge: An American Girl (2008) as Uncle Hendrick
• Survival of the Dead (2009)
• Human Target (2010) as Belvilacqua
• Haven (2011) (episode "The Tides That Bind") as Cole Glendower
• The Story of Luke (2012) as Jonas
• The Art of the Steal (2013) as 'Uncle' Paddy McCarthy
• The Best Laid Plans (2014) as Angus McClintock
• The Expanse (2016) as Frank Degraff
• The Ballad of Immortal Joe (2016) - Narrator

[ Source: Wikipedia ]