REST IN PEACE, FATHER MATT
RALPH WAITE
IN LOVING
MEMORY
JUNE 22, 1928-FEBRUARY 13, 2014
Ralph Waite, who
portrayed Father Matt on "Days of Our Lives" for 70 episodes from 2009-2014,
passed away the morning of Thursday, February 13. Waite made his probable
final appearance as Father Matt on January 24, when he performed the Christening
for Arianna. Larry Poindexter showed up the next week as Father Louis, most
likely in scenes intended for Father Matt that had to be re-written. As a
college student, Waite earned his Bachelor of Divinity at Yale, and became an
ordained minister before starting his acting career. So, it was a fitting end
that Waite's final work as an actor had him performing as a priest on the set of
St. Luke's in Salem.
Ralph Waite reflects on his
life...
Ralph Waite's first scenes as Father Matt...February
18, 2009
Ralph Waite's last
scenes as Father Matt...January 24, 2014
Here's
an obituary from The Hollywood Reporter:
Ralph Waite, who
was beloved to TV viewers as the ultimate father figure, John Walton, on The
Waltons, has died. He passed away at midday on Thursday at his home in South
Palm Desert, Steve Gordon, the accountant for the Waite family, told The
Hollywood Reporter.
He was nominated for an Emmy in 1978 for his
portrayal of the middle-American paterfamilias. He starred on The Waltons for
nine years and directed 15 episodes. Waite also performed in the vaunted
mini-series Roots, for which he received a 1977 Emmy nomination.
Prior to
his role on The Waltons, Waite had been in only one other TV show, a Nichols
episode. Waite also performed in the vaunted mini-series Roots, for which he
received a 1977 Emmy nomination.
More recently, he appeared in Days of
Our Lives and had a recurring role as Reverend Norman Balthus on HBO's
Carnivale, a part befitting a man who once served as an ordained minister on
Long Island. He also appeared as Jackson Gibbs in NCIS over the course of
several seasons and as Hank Booth in Bones.
Waite was the founder and
director of the Los Angeles Actors Theatre, which he established in 1975. To get
the company off the ground, Waite allocated $50,000 of his own money to produce
and direct revivals of The Hairy Ape and The Kitchen, in which he also
performed.
LAAT won many critical awards, including the Margaret Harford
Award given by the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle for its consistently high
standards, its commitment to adventurous theater and to community
involvement."
Multi-faceted, Waite was also an ordained minister, a
former social worker and a recovering alcoholic. He channeled that background
into a film on the lives of people on L.A.'s skid row, On the Nickel, which he
produced/directed/wrote/starred.
Under his own production banner, Ralph
Waite Prods, he starred as a criminal lawyer in the 1983 TV series The
Mississippi.
TV movies credits include the titular role in The Secret
Life of John Chapman, OHMS, Angel City and The Gentleman
Bandit.
Politically active, he twice ran unsuccessfully for a
Congressional seat, including a run for the seat left vacant by the late Sonny
Bono in 1998.
Ralph Waite was born June 22, 1928 in White Plains, New
York and graduated from Bucknell University. He later studied for three years at
Yale and earned a Bachelor of Divinity degree. At that juncture, he went on to
have stints as a social worker for the Westchester County Department of Welfare,
as well as publicity director and associate editor at Harper & Row. He was a
minister at the United Church of Christ in Garden City, Long Island.
“He
was a top notch minister and a dynamic actor in the pulpit even then,"Â former
parishioner and actor Bill Hayes told TV Guide in 1975. "But I don't think Ralph
ever enjoyed being asked to conform to the mold or the stereotype expected of
most clergymen. He was disturbed by people telling him to straighten his tie or
shine his shoes or fix the hole in his sock. He was a very individualistic guy
who wanted to be himself."
It was during his ministerial tenure that
Waite traveled to his own Damascus, a night he spent with his parishioner Bill
Hayes at his acting class. At age 32, Waite left the ministry to pursue
acting.
His conversion from the church to the stage was immediately
successful. In 1960, Waite got his first stage role in a Broadway production of
Blues for Mister Charlie. In his first eight years of acting, he landed
appearances in eight Broadway plays, including Hogan's Goat, Watering Place and
The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald. He also performed Blues for Mister Charlie in
London.
As his stage career gathered steam, Waite also garnered small
roles in top films: Cool Hand Luke and Five Easy Pieces. In 1969, he played in a
coming-of-age saga, Last Summer, which starred an up-and-coming Richard
Thomas.