Beauty couldn't make it but the Beast is coming to the BC Northern Exhibition. Hellboy will also emerge from the Underworld for a drop-in. And riding shotgun will be the most wayward of all the Sons of Anarchy, Clay Morrow.
All three are embodied in one man, one of Hollywood's most recognizable and acclaimed character actors, Ron Perlman. His many shows each have many fans, some to the point of cult following, and he will meet them all on Aug. 9 when he rumbles into our city.
His career on the screen first got noticed back in 1981 when the American up-and-comer was embraced by the emerging Canadian film industry. He was nominated for a Genie Award as Best Foreign Actor in the domestically produced classic Quest For Fire. A few years of supporting roles followed until he blitzed prime time television from the sewers of New York as Vincent the Beast, subterranean outcast and protector of his love and confidant Catherine, the district attorney (played by Linda Hamilton). This neo-romantic revisioning of the old Beauty and the Beast fable won legions of devoted watchers (and a Golden Globe for him) for three seasons.
Perlman's voice was more a part of popular culture than his face, in the early stages of his career. His longest recurring roles then were in animated series like Phantom 2040 and Mortal Kombat and Bonkers but his credits piled up. Soon he was a regular on the live-action Magnificent Seven western series, and had character parts in films like the acclaimed Sean Connery vehicle The Name of the Rose, the complicated crime drama Romeo Is Bleeding with an all-star cast, the Marlon Brando remake of The Island of Dr. Moreau, the charming indie romantic comedy Happy, Texas and others.
His versatility and screen charisma were starting to show. He was earning multiple project credits per year in the early 2000s and got to attach his name to a major franchise when he became the title character in the live-action version of the Hellboy comic book series.
As a funnyman, a badass, a white collar character, even as God, he showed he could carry almost any part with a little extra Perlman shine.
He also demonstrated an unpretentious personality by continuing to do major movies, television, short films and voice-over work for cartoons and video games (notably for gamers: Fleet Admiral Lord Hood in the Halo franchise, Batman in Justice League Heroes and the prominent narrator in Fallout) through all stages of his career.
His latest project, however, is his pice de rsistance to date. In this, the new Golden Age of television, he stands tall in a show held in the same mega esteem as Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, House of Cards and Californication. He is the main antagonist and complex villain Clay Morrow in the dark outlaw motorcycle drama Sons of Anarchy, now filming its highly anticipated final season.
And he keeps adding to his body of work. This year alone he is part of the cast of seven film projects, a TV show, and other projects in the works.
On a personal level he volunteers his time as an acting mentor in Southern California schools via the Young Storytellers Foundation and he recently made a medically ill fan's Make-A-Wish dream come true by outfitting himself in full Hellboy attire to meet the child as the popular supernatural anti-hero.
Perlman's appearance in Prince George is an awareness event for the upcoming Northern Fancon extravaganza, a comic/pop-cult festival coming in spring presented by the BC Northern Exhibition and Citizen Special Events. It is sponsored exclusively by Northland Dodge. At the Eventbrite website (use BCNE Perlman in the keyword search bar) there are three different packages available for various configurations of entry to the fair, photo with Perlman, autograph from Perlman and other BCNE features.
