Perry King

Acting

Perry King

Born 1948-04-30 · Alliance, Ohio, USA

Perry King, born Perry Firestone King, made his film debut, aged around 23, in the 1972 film Slaughterhouse-Five. In 1975, he portrayed Hammond Maxwell in the exploitation film Mandingo. Since the 1970s, he has appeared in dozens of feature films, television series and television movies. He auditioned for the role of Han Solo in Star Wars, but the role ultimately went to Harrison Ford. However, he played the character in the radio adaptations of Star Wars and both its sequels. In 1984, King was nominated for a Golden Globe award for his role in the TV movie The Hasty Heart. That same year, he landed the role of Cody Allen on the series Riptide. In 1993, he starred in the television adaptation of Sidney Sheldon's novel A Stranger in the Mirror, which is a roman à clef on Groucho Marx. In 1995, he portrayed the role of Hayley Armstrong on Melrose Place. He also appeared as Richard Williams in the NBC TV series Titans with Yasmine Bleeth in 2000 and as the President of the United States in the 2004 film The Day After Tomorrow. King has made guest appearances on TV shows including Spin City, Will & Grace, Eve, and Cold Case.

Acting credits

The Day After Tomorrow poster
6.6

After paleoclimatologist Jack Hall is largely ignored by UN officials when presenting his environmental concerns about the beginning of a new Ice Age, his research proves true when a superstorm develops, setting off catastrophic natural disasters throughout the world. Trying to get to his son, Sam, who is trapped in New York City with his friend Laura and others, Jack and his crew must travel to get to Sam before it's too late.

The Day After Tomorrow

2004

Class of 1984 poster
6.4

Andy is a new teacher at an inner city high school that is unlike any he has seen before. There are metal detectors at the front door and the place is basically run by a tough kid named Peter Stegman. Soon, Andy and Stegman become enemies and Stegman will stop at nothing to protect his turf and drug dealing business.

Class of 1984

1982

Switch poster
5.9

Steve Brooks, a sexist womanizer, is killed by a group of his angry former lovers. In heaven, he makes a bargain with God for redemption and agrees to return to Earth. Once there, he must have a sincere relationship with a female and make her fall in love with him. If not, Steve's soul will become the property of the devil. But the devil hedges his bet, and Steve is reincarnated as a woman named Amanda Brooks.

Switch

1991

Mandingo poster
6.6

Warren Maxwell, the owner of a run-down plantation, pressures his son, Hammond, to marry and produce an heir to inherit the plantation. Hammond settles on his own cousin, Blanche, but purchases a sex slave when he returns from the honeymoon. He also buys his father a new Mandingo slave named Mede to breed and train as a prize-fighter.

Mandingo

1975

Bad poster
6.5

Hazel runs a beauty salon out of her house, but makes extra money by providing ruthless women the oppurtunity to perform hit jobs. L.T. is a parasite, and contacts Hazel looking for work after he runs out of money. She is reluctant to use him for a hit, since she prefers using women, but decides to try him on a trial basis. Meanwhile, the cop she pays off wants an arrest to make it look like he's doing his job, but Hazel doesn't want to sacrifice any of her "associates". The sleazy side of life is explored in this delightfully dark and deadpan film.

Bad

1977

Slaughterhouse-Five poster
6.5

Billy Pilgrim, a veteran of the Second World War, finds himself mysteriously detached from time, so that he is able to travel, without being able to help it, from the days of his childhood to those of his peculiar life on a distant planet called Tralfamadore, passing through his bitter experience as a prisoner of war in the German city of Dresden, over which looms the inevitable shadow of an unspeakable tragedy.

Slaughterhouse-Five

1972

Night of 100 Stars II poster
6.8

This special is the second "Night of 100 Stars" to benefit The Actors Fund of America. Edited from a seven-hour live entertainment marathon that was taped February 17, 1985, at New York's Radio City Music Hall, this sequel to the 1982 "Night of 100 Stars" special features 288 celebrities.

Night of 100 Stars II

1985

The Perfect Wife poster
4.8

When Leah's brother dies in a car accident, she vows revenge on the doc who failed to save him.

The Perfect Wife

2001

A Stranger in the Mirror poster
3.5

A naive young woman arrives in Hollywood to become a star, but after she gets drugged and raped during a shoot, she hardens quickly and catches the eye of a popular womanizing comedian who introduces her to his shady powerful agent.

A Stranger in the Mirror

1993

The Lords of Flatbush poster
5.8

Set in 1958, the coming of age story follows four lower middle-class Brooklyn teenagers known as The Lords of Flatbush. The Lords chase girls, steal cars, shoot pool, get into street fights, and hang out at a local malt shop.

The Lords of Flatbush

1974

The Possession of Joel Delaney poster
5.6

An upper-class Manhattan divorcee comes to believe that her brother is possessed by the spirit of a serial killer who beheaded young women in Spanish Harlem.

The Possession of Joel Delaney

1972

The Divide poster
6.4

Set in drought-plagued Northern California in 1976, The Divide chronicles the story of Sam Kincaid (King), an aging rancher with a failing memory, his estranged and independent-minded daughter, Sarah, and Luke, a young ranch hand who finds himself in the midst of a family in crisis. Internal struggles, the realities of an unforgiving landscape, and the need to reconcile a long-ago tragedy collide to create the backdrop for this classic American Western.

The Divide

2018

Lipstick poster
5.4

A top fashion model seeks justice after getting sexually assaulted by her teenage sister's obsessive music teacher.

Lipstick

1976

She Led Two Lives poster
4.8

A married woman is reunited with her childhood sweetheart, and marries him too, forcing her to live two lives at once.

She Led Two Lives

1994

The Choirboys poster
5.4

A group of Los Angeles cops decide to take off some of the pressures of their jobs by engaging in various forms of after-hours debauchery.

The Choirboys

1977

Face of Evil poster
6.3

Using her girl-next-door looks to her advantage, Darcy Palmer is a calculating thief and murderer. After killing a young college student and taking her identity, Darcy enrolls in the victim's New England school in her place. At the university, Darcy gets to know her new roommate, Jeanelle, and her handsome father, Russell Polk, who soon play into her next scheme. When Darcy has to alter her plans, both Russell and Jeanelle become quite expendable.

Face of Evil

1996

The Cracker Factory poster
9.3

Drama depicting the problems of a suburban housewife suffering from fits of depression and alcoholism, and her stay in a psychiatric center after a feeble suicide attempt.

The Cracker Factory

1979

No artwork available
8.0

Loni Anderson and Perry King are stranded on a desert island.

Stranded

1986

Kaleidoscope poster
4.6

A family friend hires gumshoe John Chapman to find and reunite three sisters estranged by fate for 30 years. The circuitous trail leads Chapman from the Big Apple to Beantown to the City of Light. His investigation, however, opens the door to disturbing revelations about a forgotten past.

Kaleidoscope

1990

Her Married Lover poster
3.1

Film editor Katie and suspense novelist Richard share an erotically charged moment during a hostage crisis, before embarking on a rapturous affair. When Richard’s wife is killed in a suspicious accident, the lovers are accused of murder.

Her Married Lover

1999

The Clairvoyant poster
5.6

Two uneasy friends, a police officer and a TV talk show host, each pursue the mysterious "handcuff killer" with the aid of an artist who sees - and draws - the killer's crimes before they're committed.

The Clairvoyant

1982

Short Cut to Haifa poster
5.0

A middle-aged truck driver travelling through the desert with his good-for-nothing nephew and a pretty nun, gets stuck and are forced to wait to be rescued.

Short Cut to Haifa

1972

Something to Live for: The Alison Gertz Story poster
5.8

An AIDS-stricken woman becomes a leader in the struggle to educate people about the disease and its prevention.

Something to Live for: The Alison Gertz Story

1992

Roxanne: The Prize Pulitzer poster
3.7

When young Roxanne Ulrich (Chynna Phillips) meets wealthy charmer Herbert Pulitzer (Perry King) and enters the scandal-ridden world of the rich and famous, her life changes forever. After a whirlwind courtship, the two wed, but their marriage is quickly torn apart by drug abuse and affairs. Courteney Cox co-stars in this drama based on Roxanne Pulitzer's 1987 autobiography, written after her headline-making divorce from the publishing heir.

Roxanne: The Prize Pulitzer

1989

Behind the camera