Welliver was born in New Haven, Connecticut. His father, Neil Welliver, was a well-known American landscape painter who was a professor of fine art at Yale University before becoming dean of the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Fine Art. Welliver's mother, Norma Cripps, was a fashion illustrator. He studied drama at New York University in the early 1980s, before his film and television career began to take off. Welliver's life has been marked by loss: his older brother, Silas, died of muscular dystrophy, a younger sister died as an infant, his stepmother died of an infection six months later, and his younger brother, Eli, was killed in Thailand. His fourth wife, film producer Elizabeth W. Alexander, died of breast cancer in 2012.
Career
Film
Welliver has worked on several film projects, including The Doors, Mobsters, Mulholland Falls, Rough Riders, Once in the Life, Biker Boyz, Twisted, Assault on Precinct 13. He has been cast in all four of director Ben Affleck's films to date; Gone Baby Gone, The Town, Argo and Live by Night. He was also cast in director Michael Bay's film in 2014.
Television
On television, he had a recurring role as a doctor on NYPD Blue and was one of the stars of the CBS police dramaBrooklyn South. Moreover, Welliver is well known for playing the semi-regular character Silas Adams on the HBO series Deadwood. Welliver played "The Representative" in two episodes of Prison Break, portrayed Kyle Hollis in the NBC series Life, and appeared in the season five finale of Lost as the "Man in Black", which he continued to portray during the sixth and final season. In 1999 he appeared in an episode titled The Occupant, Touched by an angel, where he played a man who was "occupied" by a demon. He was introduced into FX's Sons of Anarchy midway through season two, in which he portrays Irish gun kingpin Jimmy O'Phelan. In 2009, he started playing the role of Prosecutor Glenn Childs, a rival of Chris Noth's character, in the CBS series The Good Wife. He joined the cast of the apocalyptic drama The Last Ship in a recurring role for its first two seasons, as Thorwald, a local warlord fighting underground in a dying world infected by a global pandemic. Welliver plays the title role in the TV seriesBosch from Amazon Studios. The series is based on the novels centered on the character of the same name by Michael Connelly. The first season of the series was released on Amazon Prime Video on February 13, 2015.
Audiobooks
Welliver is also the narrator of several audiobooks, including Robert B. Parker's series of American western novels, 'Appaloosa', 'Brimstone', 'Blue-Eyed Devil' and 'Ironhorse'. He has also narrated several of the Michael Connelly 'Bosch' series of crime fiction novels, including 'The Crossing', 'The Burning Room' and 'The Wrong Side of Goodbye'.
Ambassador for Gentleman Jack's "What is the order?" campaign
Personal life
Welliver has been married five times. His marriages to Heather Wielandt, Hollywood talent agent Dani Sexton, and actress Joanna Heimbold ended in divorce. He was widowed when his fourth wife, film producer Elizabeth W. Alexander, died of breast cancer in 2012. He has a daughter with Alexander, and two sons with Heimbold. He married Jose Stemkens, a Dutch fashion consultant and former model, in 2014. Welliver filed for divorce from Stemkens in May 2019.
