Ralph Waite (June 22, 1928 โ February 13, 2014) was an American actor and director. He is best known for playing father John Walton on the hit 1970s family series The Waltons.
The road to acting
He was born in White Plains, New York state. After high school, he served in the U.S. Marine Corps, then graduated from Bucknell University and earned a master's degree at Yale Divinity School. He worked as a Presbyterian minister for a while, then worked as an editor of religious books in a publishing house. He turned to acting in his thirties; He took lessons from Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio and appeared on Broadway in 1963.
Career
His first notable roles in the cinema were in the films Cool Hand Luke (1967) and Five Easy Pieces (1970), in which he played Jack Nicholson's brother. In The Waltons, published between 1972 and 1981, the father of the family, John Walton Sr. He reached a wide audience with his role, and he also directed some episodes of the series.
This role and his performance in the Roots miniseries earned him Emmy nominations. He continued to produce in theatre, establishing the Los Angeles Actors' Theater in 1975.
In the following years, he appeared in films such as The Bodyguard (1992) and Cliffhanger (1993). In the latter part of his career, he played Leroy Jethro Gibbs' father, Jackson Gibbs, on NCIS and Hank Booth on Bones. Waite, who is also interested in politics, ran for Congress from the Democratic Party in California in 1990 and 1998, but did not win.
Waite died in California on February 13, 2014, at the age of 85.
