Ralph Waite (June 22, 1928 – February 13, 2014) was an American actor, best known for his lead role as John Walton Sr. on The Waltons (1972–1981), which he occasionally directed. He 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. Waite had supporting roles in movies such as Cool Hand Luke (1967), Five Easy Pieces (1970), The Grissom Gang (1971), The Bodyguard (1992), and Cliffhanger (1993).^[1]

Waite, the eldest of five children, was born in White Plains, New York, on June 22, 1928, to Ralph H. Waite, a construction engineer, and Esther (née Mitchell) Waite.^[2] He graduated from White Plains Senior High School in 1946. Too young for World War II, Waite served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1946 to 1948, then graduated from Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. He worked briefly as a social worker. Waite earned a master's degree from Yale University's Divinity School and was an ordained Presbyterian minister and religious editor at Harper & Row, New York, before deciding on an acting career.^[3] He was a member of the Peninsula Players summer theater program during the 1963 season.^[4]

In 1963, Waite made his Broadway debut as the Minister in Marathon '33, written and directed by June Havoc.^[5] He next appeared in Blues for Mister Charlie, and worked on- and off-Broadway steadily throughout the 1960s.^[6]

His film work included roles in Cool Hand Luke, Five Easy Pieces, Lawman, Kid Blue, The Grissom Gang, Chato's Land, and The Stone Killer. His later films included The Bodyguard, the part of Frank the helicopter pilot in the 1993 film Cliffhanger, and as the mysterious time traveler in Timequest (2002).^[7] He also voiced Shadow in Homeward Bound II.

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.^[8]

Waite was married three times, two marriages ending in divorce. He had three daughters from his first marriage. His eldest daughter, Sharon Waite, died of leukemia when she was 9 years old in 1964.^[9] Liam Waite, one of Waite's stepsons, is also an actor. After 50 years away from organized religion, Waite returned in 2010 and became an active member of Spirit of the Desert Presbyterian Fellowship in Palm Desert, California.^[3]

On February 13, 2014, Waite died in Palm Desert, California, of natural causes at age 85.^[13] He is buried in White Plains Rural Cemetery in New York.

• Marathon '33 (1963)
• Blues for Mister Charlie (1964)
• Hogan's Goat (play) (1965)
• The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald (1967)
• Other People's Money (play, before the film) (1991, Trinity Repertory Company, Providence, RI)
• The Young Man From Atlanta (1995)