Jeff Perry (American actor)

Jeff Perry
Perry at the Peabody Awards, May 2014
Born	(1955-08-16) August 16, 1955 (age 61) Highland Park, Illinois, U.S.
Alma mater	Illinois State University
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1974–present
Spouse(s)	Laurie Metcalf (m. 1983; div. 1992) Linda Lowy
Children	2

Jeffrey Perry (born August 16, 1955) is an American actor of stage, television, and film. He currently stars in the ABC political drama Scandal.

At an early age, his elder sister Jo took him to an audition at Ravinia Festival where American Conservatory Theater was staging Luigi Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author. He auditioned and got the part.

He is one of the original co-founders of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, Illinois. Perry and schoolmates Gary Sinise and Terry Kinney started the company in one end of the cafeteria at Highland Park High School and later moved it to a small space in the Immaculate Conception Church in Highland Park. It has since grown into a notable national theater company whose alumni include John Malkovich, John Mahoney, and Joan Allen. Perry remains an Executive Artistic Director along with co-founders Kinney and Sinise.

After spending nearly two decades with Steppenwolf, Perry made the move to Los Angeles in 1987 to pursue film and television work. Perry is perhaps best known as Inspector Harvey Leek (a diehard Grateful Dead fan) on the CBS police drama series Nash Bridges. He was a tough superior to Kevin Bacon's detective in the thriller Wild Things (1998). Many of his television and film credits include The Human Stain (2003), Hard Promises (1991) and The Grifters (1990) as well as appearances on My So-Called Life (1994), The West Wing (1999), The Practice (2003), Lost (2005), Cold Case (2006), Raines (2007), and several episodes of Grey's Anatomy (2005) as Meredith Grey's father. He replaced John Billingsley in the role of Terrence Steadman in the critically acclaimed TV show Prison Break.