Peter Gerety: These Facts Will Tell You More About The Veteran Actor

Peter Gerety – born May 17, 1940, is 84 years old.

The entertainer is a heavily built and infrequently grubby character actor sporting an overbearing and arresting presence. The Octogenarian entertainer often takes on roles as your mundane working-class stiffs, inner-city law officers, or judges. An acclaimed actor with equal footing, both in the movies and stage performance, Peter took his first onscreen bow earlier in the 80s.

However, the versatile performer returned and started garnering considerable attention over a decade down the line, appearing in quite a good number of successful productions that went on to boost his popularity. To date, the actor is best recognized for his multi-season depiction of Detective Stuart Gharty in Homicide: Life on the Street – the cop drama that was viewed between 1996 and 1999. Peter also portrayed Judge Daniel Phelan, a recurring character in The Wire – a second Baltimore-set crime series that aired between 2002 and 2008. The veteran also played roles on the big screen, appearing in 1996 Sleepers, K-PAX in 2001, 2005 Syriana, Charlie Wilson’s War in 2007, 2008 Leatherheads, as well as Public Enemies in 2009.

Peter Gerety became an octogenarian in May 2020

The movie actor was born in Providence, Rhode Island, in the United States on the 17th of May 1940 which made him an octogenarian in May 2020. He is an American national, thanks to his place of birth and the actor’s ethnicity is white.

In the same vein, we know nothing about his birth family and early life. However, it is public knowledge that he attended Boston University, though his course of study and year of graduation were never made public. He began his acting career in the sixties and has remained active in his craft.

His acting career took off as a student at Boston University

Peter Gerety was still studying for his degree at Boston University when he discovered the world of the performing arts and started making stage appearances at local theaters. The emerging entertainer was, at the time, quick in making progress and advanced to performing on New York stages and later on, he made it to the screen.

In 1992, he was part of the Broadway performance of Conversations with My Father where he earned acclaim, sharing the stage with the likes of Judd Hirsch. He was also part of Hothouse by Harold Pinter and has made appearances in many more stage gigs on and off-Broadway. The actor’s most recent on-stage performance was recorded in The Lieutenant of Inishmore by Martin McDonagh.

His breakthrough took a while

Gerety’s big break took a while in coming as the performer had to toil for a couple of years, acting within the capacity of a guest-supporting actor. After he paid his dues, Peter’s breakthrough finally happened in 1996 when he scored a series regular role in Homicide: Life on the Street – an NBC series that was watched between 1993 and 1999.

NBC also did a crime drama entitled Public Morals in 1996 where they featured the American actor as a series regular. He continued making notable appearances to take his career to the next level.

These are roles Peter Gerety played in the 2000s

The Wire, HBO’s seminal police series starred him in a huge recurring role as Judge Phelan from 2002 to 2008. Gerety’s next series regular role was achieved as Maria Bello’s father on the set of NBC’s Prime Suspect which started airing in 2011 and had its run through 2012. The original version of the series is a British production of the same name, the NBC version is just a remake.

Public Morals, a TNT show cast him in a recurring role in 2015 and a couple of years later, in 2017, the actor scored a series regular role where he essayed the character of the patriarch on the set of the situational comedy entitled Sneaky Pete. The series is still ongoing. With that said, we must not forget the actor’s latest project Working Man that has received a lot of rave reviews.

He played Arnie Bayberry in Change in the Air and in the same year, 2018, he started portraying the character of James Sullivan in the television series Ray Donovan which lasted into 2020. His other projects include Charlie Wilson’s War, Paul Blart: Mall Cop, Flight, Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight, God’s Pocket, Cymbeline, A Most Violent Year, Mercy Street, and a whole lot more. Peter’s highest-rated movie on Rotten Tomatoes is Working Man which earned a 93% rating and his lowest is Mrs. Winterbourne with 10%.

Peter’s latest movie Working Man has received rave reviews from critics

Peter Gerety on the set of Working Man image source

As the novel Coronavirus pandemic continued to bite hard on the United States populace, an estimated 30 million workers were out of jobs within a couple of months and the fortunate ones just had to start working from home. Yet, there is something awfully poignant and emotional about watching a burly man pack his lunch daily, strolling several blocks from home to his duty post – a plastics production plant. That the man continued with this routine even after he has been laid off by the manufacturing plant which subsequently shut down only goes to piques the interest of the viewing public.

That’s a good description of the plot of Working Man as directed by Richard Jury. An indie movie that started as a silent reflection on the dignity of work but regrettably pivoted to a less subtle melodrama. However, the plot is grounded all through due to an excellent performance by veteran American actor Peter Gerety.

The setting of Working Man is a small Rust Belt town (the recordings were majorly done in Chicago, Joliet, Illinois, and also featured in the movie). Allery Parkes, Peter’s character, together with several other staff of New Liberty Plastics lost their jobs because of the situation at hand. Parkes, however, chose to present himself at the shuttered plant on a daily basis, and upon finding the source of power turned off, finds work for himself, cleaning the company machinery. It was laughable, but Allery stubbornly stuck to this routine, staying all by himself in the entire staffroom, taking his coffee break, and eating lunch before closing time when he will start shuffling back home as he does on a normal working day.

Highlights of Peter Gerety’s movies and TV shows

• The House of Mirth (1981) as Jack
• The Demon Murder Case (1983) as Andrew Brooks
• First Affair (1983) as Taxi Driver
• Concealed Enemies (1984) as Edwin H. Fearon
• The House of God (1984) as P.R. Man #1
• Papa Was a Preacher (1985) as Billy Kilgore
• The Little Sister (1986) as Officer Burke
• A Case of Deadly Force (1986) as Bobby Doyle
• Ollie Hopnoodle’s Haven of Bliss (1988) as Gertz
• The Kennedys of Massachusetts (1990) as Irish Driver
• Complex World (1992) as Biker
• Return to Lonesome Dove (1993) as Thompkins / Cowboy
• Wolf (1994) as George
• Cagney & Lacey: The Return (1994) as Sgt. Matt Nelson
• Miracle on 34th Street (1994) as Cop
• Homicide: Life on the Street (1996-2000, TV Series + TV Movie) as Stuart Gharty
• Sleepers (1996) as Juvenile Lawyer (uncredited)
• Mrs. Winterbourne (1996) as Father Brian Kilraine
• Surviving Picasso (1996) as Marcel
• Public Morals (1996, TV Series) as Neil Fogerty
• Arresting Gena (1997) as Mr. Patterson
• Montana (1998) as Mike
• Went to Coney Island on a Mission from God… Be Back by Five (1998) as Maurice
• The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000) as Neskaloosa
• The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001) as Ned
• K-PAX (2001) as Sal
• Hollywood Ending (2002) as a Psychiatrist
• Ash Wednesday (2002) as Uncle Handy
• Pinocchio (2002) as Farmer / Mustache Man (English version, voice)
• People I Know (2002) as Norris Volpe
• The Wire (2002–2008, TV Series) as Judge Daniel Phelan
• Virgin (2003) as Mr. Reynolds
• Second Best (2004) as Marshall
• Looking for Kitty (2004) as Gus Maplethorpe
• Indocumentados (2004) as O’Brien
• Runaway (2005) as Mo
• War of the Worlds (2005) as Hatch Boss / Load Manager
• Syriana (2005) as Leland Janus
• Things That Hang from Trees (2006) as Ump
• Inside Man (2006) as Captain Coughlin
• The Black Donnellys (2007, TV Series) as Bob The Mouth
• Charlie Wilson’s War (2007) as Larry Liddle
• Phoebe in Wonderland (2008) as Dr. Miles / Humpty Dumpty
• Stop-Loss (2008) as Carlson
• Leatherheads (2008) as Commissioner
• Changeling (2008) as Dr. Earl W. Tarr
• The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond (2008) as Mr. Van Hooven
• Paul Blart: Mall Cop (2009) as Chief Brooks
• My Dog Tulip (2009) as Mr. Plum / Pugilist (voice)
• Public Enemies (2009) as Louis Piquett
• The Good Wife (2010, TV Series) as Judge Timothy Stanek
• Rubicon (2010) as David Hadas
• Prime Suspect (2011, TV Series) as Desmond Timoney
• Get the Gringo (2012) as Embassy Guy
• Flight (2012) as Avington Carr
• Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight (2013) as William Brennan
• God’s Pocket (2014) as McKenna
• Cymbeline (2014) as Dr. Cornelius
• A Most Violent Year (2014) as Bill O’Leary
• Sneaky Pete (2015-2019, TV Series) as Otto Bernhardt
• Mercy Street (2016, TV Series) as Dr. Alfred Summers
• Change in the Air (2018) as Arnie Bayberry
• Ray Donovan (2019-2020, TV Series) as James Sullivan
• Working Man (2020) as Allery Parkes

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Who is Peter Gerety wife?

The Octogenarian belongs to the category of celebrities whose marriages have endured for decades. Though we don’t seem to have the basics of Gerety’s love life, it is public knowledge that his marriage has endured for two decades and still counting.

The prolific actor exchanged the forever commitment vows with his spouse Natalie Burton on the 27th of November 2000 and they have been going strong ever since. Peter has managed to keep his personal life away from the radar of the media eye and consequently, we cannot say if he has children and how many they are.