Ralph Waite

Not to be confused with Ralph White.

Ralph Waite
Waite at the 40th anniversary of The Waltons on September 29, 2012
Born	(1928-06-22)June 22, 1928 White Plains, New York, U.S.
Died	February 13, 2014(2014-02-13) (aged 85) Palm Desert, California, U.S.
Resting place	White Plains Rural Cemetery
Alma mater	Bucknell University and Yale Divinity School
Occupation(s)	Actor, political activist
Years active	1954–2014
Political party	Democratic
Spouses	Beverly Waite ​ ​ (m. 1951;div. 1966)​ Kerry Shear Waite ​ ​ (m. 1977;div. 1981)​ Linda East ​ (m. 1982)​
Children	3

Ralph Waite (June 22, 1928 – February 13, 2014) was an American actor, best known for his lead role as John Walton Sr. on The Waltons (1972–1981), which he occasionally directed. He later had recurring roles as two other heroic fathers; in NCIS as Jackson Gibbs, the father of Leroy Jethro Gibbs, and in Bones , as Seeley Booth's grandfather.

Waite had supporting roles in movies such as Cool Hand Luke (1967), Five Easy Pieces (1970), The Grissom Gang (1971), The Bodyguard (1992), and Cliffhanger (1993). ^[1]

Early life

Waite, the eldest of five children, was born in White Plains, New York, on June 22, 1928, to Ralph H. Waite, a construction engineer, and Esther (née Mitchell) Waite. ^[2] He graduated from White Plains Senior High School in 1946. Too young for World War II, Waite served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1946 to 1948, then graduated from Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. He worked briefly as a social worker. Waite earned a master's degree from Yale University's Divinity School and was an ordained Presbyterian minister and religious editor at Harper & Row, New York, before deciding on an acting career. ^[3] He was a member of the Peninsula Players summer theater program during the 1963 season. ^[4]

In 1963, Waite made his Broadway debut as the Minister in Marathon '33, written and directed by June Havoc. ^[5] He next appeared in Blues for Mister Charlie , and worked on- and off-Broadway steadily throughout the 1960s. ^[6]

Film work

From The Waltons (1972), L-R: Ralph Waite, Richard Thomas, and Michael Learned

His film work included roles in Cool Hand Luke , Five Easy Pieces , Lawman , Kid Blue , The Grissom Gang , Chato's Land , and The Stone Killer . His later films included The Bodyguard , the part of Frank the helicopter pilot in the 1993 film Cliffhanger , and as the mysterious time traveler in Timequest (2002). ^[7] He also voiced Shadow in Homeward Bound II.

Later stage work

Waite scored a personal triumph when he created the role of Will Kidder in the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Young Man from Atlanta , by playwright Horton Foote, in 1995. ^[8]

Personal life

Waite was married three times, two marriages ending in divorce. He had three daughters from his first marriage. His eldest daughter, Sharon Waite, died of leukemia when she was 9 years old in 1964. ^[9] Liam Waite, one of Waite's stepsons, is also an actor. After 50 years away from organized religion, Waite returned in 2010 and became an active member of Spirit of the Desert Presbyterian Fellowship in Palm Desert, California. ^[3]

Political involvement

Waite ran unsuccessfully for Congress in California as a Democrat on three occasions: In 1990, he challenged veteran GOP incumbent Al McCandless in the Riverside County-based 37th district, losing by 5%. In 1998, Waite ran in the special election for the then-Palm Springs-based 44th district left vacant by the death of incumbent Sonny Bono. ^[10] He was defeated in that election by Mary Bono, Sonny's widow, and lost to her again that November. ^[11]

On October 21, 1991, Waite introduced former California Governor Jerry Brown prior to the latter's speech announcing his candidacy for the 1992 Democratic presidential nomination. ^[12]

Electoral history

Year	Office	Democrat	Votes	Pct	Republican	Votes	Pct
1990	U.S House of Representatives District 37	Jeffrey Jacobs 29% Ralph Waite 71%	103,961	44.8%	Bud Mathewson 27% Al McCandless 73%	115,469	49.8%
1998	U.S House of Representatives District 44 (special election)	Ralph Waite	24,228	28.8%	Mary Bono	53,755	64%
1998	U.S House of Representatives District 39 (general election)	Ralph Waite	57,697	35.7%	Mary Bono	97,013	60.1%

Death

On February 13, 2014, Waite died in Palm Desert, California, of natural causes at age 85. ^[13] He is buried in White Plains Rural Cemetery in New York. The NCIS episode "Honor Thy Father", the season 11 finale, is dedicated to Waite's memory.

Filmography

Film

Director

• On the Nickel (1980) (Also writer)

Actor

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1967	Cool Hand Luke	"Alibi"
1968	A Lovely Way to Die	Sean Magruder
1969	Last Summer	Peter's Father	Uncredited
1970	Five Easy Pieces	Carl Fidelio Dupea
1971	The Pursuit of Happiness	Detective Cromie
	The Sporting Club	Olson
	Lawman	Jack Dekker
	The Grissom Gang	Mace
1972	Chato's Land	Elias Hooker
	Hot Summer Week	John
	The Magnificent Seven Ride!	Jim MacKay
1973	Trouble Man	Pete Cockrell
	Kid Blue	Drummer
	The Stone Killer	Mathews
1980	On the Nickel	C.G.
1980	Angel City	Jared Teeter
1988	Good Old Boy: A Delta Boyhood	The Narrator
1989	Red Earth, White Earth	Martin
1990	Crash and Burn	Lathan Hooks
	Desperate Hours
1992	The Bodyguard	Herb Farmer
1993	Cliffhanger	Ranger Frank
1994	Sioux City	Drew McDermott
1996	Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco	Shadow	Voice
2000	Timequest	The Time Traveler
2002	Sunshine State	Furman Temple
2004	Silver City	Casey Lyle
2010	Letters to God	Cornelius Perryfield
2011	25 Hill	Ed
2012	Gabe the Cupid Dog	R.L. Dutton

Television

Director

Year	Title	Notes
1973-1980	The Waltons	16 episodes
1983	The Mississippi	Episode "Mardi Gras"

Actor

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1966	Look Up and Live	Host
1967–1968	N.Y.P.D.	Robert Stryker
1970	Bonanza	Hoby	Episode "The Lady and the Mark"
1971	Nichols	Sam Burton
1972–1981	The Waltons	John Walton Sr.
1977	Roots	Slater, First Mate
1978	CBS: On the Air	Himself
1983	The Mississippi	Ben Walker
1987	Reading Rainbow
1989	Murder, She Wrote	District Attorney Paul Robbins
1993	Roseanne	Dr. Gerald Baker
1994	Time Trax	Lamont Carson
1996	Murder One	Malcolm Dietrich
1997	Orleans	Otis Leblanc
1999	The Outer Limits	Gene Morton
	Chicken Soup for the Soul	Dad
	Rocket Power	Doc Freimouth	Voice
2001	All My Children	Bart
2003–2005	Carnivàle	Reverend Norman Balthus
2004	The Practice	Walter Josephson
2007	Cold Case	Felton Metz
2008	CSI	Sheriff Montgomery	Episode "Young Man with a Horn"
2008–2013	NCIS	Jackson Gibbs	8 episodes
2008	The Cleaner	Jonus Mullins
2011	Kickin' It	Principal Keener	7 episodes
2009–2014	Days of Our Lives	Father Matt
2009	Grey's Anatomy	Irving Waller	Episode "Tainted Obligation"
2009–2013	Bones	Hank Booth	3 episodes
2011	Off the Map	Abuelito	Episode "On the Mean Streets of San Miguel"

TV movies

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1967	The Borgia Stick	The Man From Toledo
1973	The Thanksgiving Story
1976	The Secret Life of John Chapman	John Chapman
1977	Red Alert	Henry Stone
1977	Waiting for Godot	Pozzo
1980	OHMS	Floyd Wing
1980	Angel City	Jared Teeter
1981	The Gentleman Bandit	Father Bernard Pagano
1982-1999	A Wedding on Walton's Mountain	John Walton Sr.	Reunion movies
	Mother's Day on Waltons Mountain
	A Day for Thanks on Walton's Mountain
	A Walton Thanksgiving Reunion
	A Walton Wedding
	A Walton Easter
1984	A Good Sport	Tommy O'Bannon	Also executive producer
	Growing Pains	Rob
1985	Crime of Innocence	Frank Hayward
1990	Sparks: The Price of Passion	Orville Lemon
1994	Sin & Redemption	Cal Simms
	Keys	Dr. C.J. Halligan
1995	A Season of Hope	Sam Hackett
1997	The Third Twin	Senator Proust
2000	The President's Man	President Mathews
2001	Spirit	Jacob
2003	Blessings	Sheriff
2007	Murder 101: If Wishes Were Horses	Jacob Brawley
2009	Ace Ventura Jr.: Pet Detective	Grandpa Ventura

Theatre

• Marathon '33 (1963)
• Blues for Mister Charlie (1964)
• Hogan's Goat (play) (1965)
• The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald (1967)
• Other People's Money (play, before the film) (1991, Trinity Repertory Company, Providence, RI)
• The Young Man from Atlanta (1995)

References

1. "Ralph Waite will be honored in 'NCIS' season finale". USA Today. February 24, 2014.
2. "Ralph Waite profile at". Filmreference.com. Retrieved August 12, 2010.
3. "Presbyterian Church (USA) – Ralph Waite finds a home in church". Pcusa.org. August 6, 2010. Archived from the original on April 6, 2015. Retrieved August 12, 2010.
4. Peninsula Players 65th Anniversary Program, 1999
5. Playbill, vol. 1 (January 1964) No. 1, Marathon ’33, p. 27.
6. Byrge, Duane (February 13, 2014). "'The Waltons' Actor Ralph Waite Dead at 85". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved April 30, 2018.
7. "R.I.P. 'The Waltons' Patriarch Ralph Waite". Deadline Hollywood . February 13, 2014. Retrieved April 30, 2018.
8. Canby, Vincent (January 30, 1995). "THEATER REVIEW; Nameless Menace In Latest By Foote". The New York Times . Retrieved April 30, 2018.
9. Interview with Beverly Waite Archived December 7, 2012, at the Wayback Machine ; accessed May 19, 2014.
10. Lyman, Rick (February 13, 1998). "On Stage and Off". The New York Times. Retrieved August 30, 2012.
11. "'The Waltons' actor Ralph Waite dies at 85". Fox 5 San Diego . February 14, 2014. Retrieved April 30, 2018.
12. Brown Presidential Campaign Announcement, Oct 21 1991
13. "The Waltons' actor Ralph Waite dies at 85 in Palm Desert." Archived May 14, 2014, at the Wayback Machine , "Mydesert.com", February 13, 2014

External links

• Ralph Waite at IMDb
• Ralph Waite at the Internet Broadway Database
• Ralph Waite at the Internet Off-Broadway Database (archived)
• Ralph Waite at the University of Wisconsin's Actors Studio audio collection
• Ralph Waite on Biography Channel
• Ralph Waite on Find A Grave