Adored by thousands of adolescent girls while star of cult ‘90s TV show
LUKE Perry rose to superstardom on the teenoriented 1990s US television drama Beverly Hills, 90210 and then aged into a fatherly role on comicbased Riverdale.
He died on March 4 at the age of 52 after suffering a stroke last week.
Publicist Arnold Robinson said Perry died in a Los Angeles area hospital surrounded by his family and close friends, including his former wife, Minnie Sharp, his two children, and his fiancee, Wendy Madison Bauer.
Perry was rushed to a Los Angeles hospital last week after suffering the stroke at his home, celebrity website TMZ.com reported.
Perry was taken ill the same day Fox television announced it was reviving the Beverly Hills, 90210 series with many of the original cast, including Jason Priestley, Jennie Garth and Tori Spelling. Perry was not among those announced as returning for the limited run of six new episodes.
Since 2016, Perry had played Fred Andrews, father of Archie Andrews, in the television series Riverdale, a dark twist on the Archie comic books, but more than 20 years earlier, the actor had been a heartthrob who adorned the cover of scores of magazines aimed at adolescent girls, thanks to Beverly Hills, 90210.
The show, which aired on the Fox network, was about a group of attractive high school pupils living the sweet life amid Southern California affluence while dealing with teen angst, as well as a raft of more serious issues such as date rape, Aids and teen pregnancy.
Perry was in his mid20s when he started playing high schooler Dylan McKay, a brooding loner on a motorcycle with prominent sideburns and badboy tendencies. An avalanche of comparisons to the late James Dean soon followed.
Beverly Hills, 90210 got off to a slow start in the ratings in 1990 but built a cult following that grew to become a cultural phenomenon with its target demographic. One of the key plot lines was Perry’s character developing a romance with Brenda, a wholesome Midwestern transplant to Beverly Hills, played by Shannen Doherty, before moving on to her best friend Kelly, played by Garth.
Along the way, Perry and the rest of the cast became stars.
Perry’s fame was such that he was getting 4000 fan letters a week and drawing crowds of thousands of teenage girls to his personal appearances. Once Perry had to be smuggled out of a Seattle mall hiding in a laundry hamper because of overzealous fans and at another appearance, some 20 people were injured rushing a stage.
He eventually gave up personal appearances for security concerns and did not like being considered a ‘‘teen idol’’.
Perry left 90210 after its sixth season but returned two years later as the show finished its 10year run. By the time it was over, Perry’s Dylan had endured a drinking problem, cocaine and heroin abuse, financial hardship, a nearfatal car crash, his father’s faked death, various romances and a marriage that ended when his wife was mistakenly killed by a hitman.
Perry also was in the 1992 movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer that preceded the TV series of that name and during his 90210 run portrayed reallife rodeo star Lane Frost in 8 Seconds. He learned to ride bulls and did many of his own stunts in the film.
Perry’s other TV credits included Windfall, a 2006 series about a group of friends who win a big lottery jackpot; two seasons of Jeremiah, a postapocalyptic drama; and a season on Oz, a prison drama on which he played a preacher convicted of embezzlement.
His stage work included starring in London stage adaptation of When Harry Met Sally in 2004 and playing Brad in The Rocky Horror Show on Broadway in 2001.
Perry was born Coy Luther Perry on October 11, 1966, in Mansfield, Ohio, the son of Ann Bennett, a homemaker, and Coy Luther Perry jun, a steelworker.
He grew up in Fredericktown, Ohio, and after graduating from high school headed to Los Angeles to pursue acting while working construction jobs and in a doorknob factory.
In the late 1980s, he took on soap opera roles and television commercials before landing the Beverly Hills, 90210 part.
Perry and Minnie Sharp, who were married from 1992 to 2003, had two children. — Reuters