Joseph V. Perry
The career of lifelong character actor Joseph V. Perry spanned almost half a century. He studied acting at UCLA and got his start on television with the drama "Crossroads" in 1955. Though he never achieved success as a leading man, Perry embraced his role as a character actor and appeared in over 150 separate productions over the course of his lifetime. In the late 1950s and early '60s, Perry appeared in a handful of TV Westerns, including "Zane Grey Theater" and "Rawhide," with two spots on Rod Serling's original "Twilight Zone" in between. In 1965, Perry was cast in an episode of the procedural crime drama "The F.B.I.," and would go on to appear in six more through 1972. He landed a supporting role in the 1977 Gene Hackman thriller, "The Domino Principle," his first major film. Perry continued as a character actor into the '80s, cropping up on shows like the cop comedy "Barney Miller," the legal sitcom "Night Court," and the action series "MacGyver." Perhaps his most visible film role came in 1989, when he played Ralph Macchio's Uncle Louie in "The Karate Kid, Part III." Perry remained active into the late 1990s, despite battling diabetes, and enjoyed a small recurring role on the popular sitcom "Everybody Loves Raymond" until his death in 2000.
