1. Ralph Waite was an American actor, best known for his lead role as John Walton Sr.
13 Facts About Ralph Waite
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Ralph Waite 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.
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Ralph Waite graduated from White Plains Senior High School in 1946.
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Too young for World War II, Ralph Waite served in the US Marine Corps from 1946 to 1948, then graduated from Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.
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Ralph Waite was a member of the Peninsula Players summer theater program during the 1963 season.
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In 1963, Ralph Waite made his Broadway debut as the Minister in Marathon '33, written and directed by June Havoc.
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Ralph Waite next appeared in Blues for Mister Charlie, and worked on- and off-Broadway steadily throughout the 1960s.
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Ralph 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.
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Ralph Waite was married three times, two marriages ending in divorce.
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In 1998, Ralph Waite ran in the special election for the then-Palm Springs-based 44th district left vacant by the death of incumbent Sonny Bono.
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On October 21,1991, Ralph Waite introduced former California Governor Jerry Brown prior to the latter's speech announcing his candidacy for the 1992 Democratic presidential nomination.
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On February 13,2014, Ralph Waite died in Palm Desert, California, of natural causes at age 85.
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Ralph Waite is buried in White Plains Rural Cemetery in New York.