There have been other more recent theater excursions including "Death of a Salesman" (1998), "The Gin Game" (1999), "Ancestral Voices (2000) and "This Thing of Darkness" (2002). Throughout the seventies, he strove to expand outside his Walton patriarchal casting with other TV mini-movie endeavors. Waite also directed several episodes of the series during the nine seasons. At age 30, however, he began to study acting and found his true life's passion.Waite made his professional NY debut in a 1960 production of "The Balcony" at the Circle in the Square and was seen on Broadway in "Blues for Mister Charlie" before earning fine reviews in 1965 alongside Faye Dunaway in "Hogan's Goat". One of those films, the coming-of-age Last Summer (1969) starred an up-and-coming talent named Richard Thomas, who, of course, would figure prominently in Waite's success story in years to come. During this same time, in 1977, Waite entered his second marriage, to Kerry Shear Waite. Waite received an Emmy nomination for "The Waltons" and another for his performance in the ABC miniseries "Roots." Had conducted a memorial service for his aunt, Grace Haviland Waite, at the Quaker Meeting House in Purchase, New York, in 1989. He went on to star in the TV series "The Mississippi" (1984) and was a cast member in "Carnivale" (2003 to 2005) and the soap opera "The Days of Our Lives" (2009 to 2013). In his second TV series The Mississippi (1982), which was produced by his company Ralph Waite Productions, he played a criminal lawyer who abandoned his practice (almost) for a leisurely life captaining a riverboat. In 1982, Waite married his third wife, Linda East, who would remain with the actor until his death in 2014. He also became active in politics, picketing for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. After his divorce, at age 38, he moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1966, to pursue a career in acting. She inspired him to go into social work in New York's Westchester County. But at the same time, I feel in my bones you lose a lot of life's value if you don't see yourself as a member of the family of man. He ultimately lost the race, however, to GOP incumbent Al McCandless. The late Ralph Waite played his father on television for years. Before he was a successful actor, ordained minister and political activist, he was also a social worker. Classmate of former news editor Milt Hoffman. In 2010, Waite returned to his religious roots and joined the Desert Presbyterian Fellowship in Palm Desert. In 1977, he received an Emmy Award nomination for the mini-series "Roots" and in 1978, he earned an Emmy Award nomination for "The Waltons". The acclaimed actor left behind an indelible legacy. It also won a Golden Globe and a Peabody Award. She says she consented to sex, but not to the violence that followed. Playing fathers of families/children, and fathers of the church. 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