Personal Life
Waite, the oldest of five children, was born in White Plains, New York, the son of Esther (née Mitchell) and Ralph H. Waite, a construction engineer. Before becoming an actor, Waite, served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1946 to 1948, graduated from Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, and briefly was a social worker. He earned a master's degree from Yale University Divinity School and was a Presbyterian minister and religious editor at Harper & Row in New York City before deciding on a career in acting.
He is a former member of the Peninsula Players summer theater program during the 1963 season.
Ralph Waite has married three times; two of his marriages ended in divorce. He had three daughters from his first marriage. One of his daughters died when she was nine years old. His stepson, Liam Waite, is also an actor.
After fifty years being away from organized religion, Waite returned in 2010 and became an active member of Spirit of the Desert Presbyterian Fellowship in Palm Desert, California.
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