Luke Perry was born on October 11, 1966, in Mansfield, Ohio,[1] the second of three children to Ann Perry, a homemaker, and Coy Luther Perry Jr., a steelworker.[1] He had an older brother, Thomas Perry, and a younger sister, Amy Coder (née Perry).[2] His parents divorced in 1972.[3] His father died of a heart attack in 1980.[4] Perry was raised in Fredericktown, Ohio, and played Freddie Bird, the school mascot for Fredericktown High School.[5]
Career
Beginnings
In 1984, Perry moved to Los Angeles shortly after high school to pursue acting.[4] He worked odd jobs, including for an asphalt paving company and in a doorknob factory.[6] He appeared in the 1985 music video of "Be Chrool to Your Scuel" for the band Twisted Sister. Perry had auditioned for 256 acting jobs before receiving his first acceptance in 1988.[7] After moving to New York, Perry's earliest roles were on daytime soap operas: one episode of Loving (1987–1988) and ten episodes of Another World (1988–1989).[8]
In an attempt to find more mature roles, he decided to leave Beverly Hills, 90210 in 1995. That year, he took a part in the Italian film Vacanze di Natale '95, playing himself. Although he announced that 90210 was behind him, his absence lasted for only three years, and he returned to the show in 1998. During this time, Perry starred in the independent film Normal Life opposite Ashley Judd[14] and starred in the science fiction television film Invasion (1997)[15] and Riot (1997), a drama about the 1992 Los Angeles riots.[16] He had a small role in Luc Besson's science fiction adventure film The Fifth Element (1997). In 1998, he returned to 90210, where he remained as a permanent special guest star through the show's final season in 2000.[5] In 1999, he starred in the film Storm.[citation needed]
He said of his role on Beverly Hills, 90210 as Dylan McKay, "I'm going to be linked with him until I die, but that's actually just fine. I created Dylan McKay. He's mine,"[17] but did not reprise his role in the spin-off. He stated: "When you're in the professional acting business, you have to look into all these offers, and I don't mean anything bad about it but creatively it's something I have done before and I don't know how it will benefit me if I do it again."[18] Perry said that the fact that the show's longtime producer Aaron Spelling was not involved in the revival was critical: "The difference between CW bringing something back and Aaron Spelling doing something is significant. And I cannot do it without Aaron."[19] However, Shannen Doherty, Jennie Garth, and Tori Spelling reprised their roles in the 2008 revival of the series.[citation needed]
Later work
From 2001 to 2002, Perry starred in the HBO prison drama Oz, as Reverend Jeremiah Cloutier.[20] From 2002 to 2004, he starred in the post-apocalyptic television series Jeremiah.[21] Perry went on to star in a 2002 television film called The Triangle.[22] In 2006, Perry co-starred in the ensemble drama series Windfall, about a group of friends who win the lottery. The series ran for 13 episodes during the summer of 2006 on NBC.[8] In 2007, he landed the role of Tommy "Santa" Santorelli on the film The Sandlot: Heading Home, and he appeared in the 2008 westernA Gunfighter's Pledge.[23][24] Perry also appeared in the 2007 HBO series John from Cincinnati.[25] He also starred in the Swedish film Äntligen Midsommar (Finally Midsummer), which was released in the summer of 2009.[26]
Perry guest-starred as gay characters in the sitcoms Spin City (1997) and Will & Grace (2005); in the former, he appeared as Carter Heywood's ex-boyfriend who subsequently fell in love with a woman, and in the latter he played a birdwatcher who catches the eye of Jack McFarland.[30] In 2005, Perry was reunited with former 90210 co-star Jennie Garth when he guest-starred on What I Like About You in a loose parody of their 90210 characters' relationship.[31] In 2008, Perry guest-starred as rapist Noah Sibert in the season premiere of the television series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.[32] He also guest-starred as cult leader Benjamin Cyrus in an episode of Criminal Minds. In late 2009, Perry starred in The Killers' music video for their fourth annual Christmas single, "¡Happy Birthday Guadalupe!".[33]
Perry married Rachel Minnie Sharp on November 20, 1993, in Beverly Hills.[42] They had two children, son Jack Perry (born June 16, 1997) and daughter Sophie Perry (born June 7, 2000), before separating in 2003.[43][44][45][46] Jack is a professional wrestler in All Elite Wrestling (AEW) who was formerly known as Jungle Boy.[47]
Perry became an advocate for colorectal cancer testing after undergoing a colonoscopy in 2015 that revealed pre-cancerous growths.[48] As a result of the scare, he created a will naming his children as the sole beneficiaries.[49] At the time of his death, Perry was engaged[50] to Wendy Madison Bauer.[51][52]
Illness and death
On February 27, 2019, Perry suffered a massive ischemic stroke at his home in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, and was taken to Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank. After a second stroke, his family decided to remove him from life support,[49] and he died on March 4 at the age of 52.[53] He was buried at the Perry Family Farm in VanLeer, Tennessee, where he had owned a home since 1995. Perry was buried in an eco-friendly mushroom burial suit which the manufacturer states can remove polluting toxins from the body while naturally breaking it down.[54]
In the aftermath of his death, the Reelz channel announced a documentary titled Luke Perry: In His Own Words.[55] As a result of his death, his Riverdale character Fred Andrews also died, and the fourth season premiere was a tribute episode dedicated to him and his character, featuring his Beverly Hills, 90210 co-star Shannen Doherty.[56]
^ abcdefgh"Luke Perry (visual voices guide)". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved September 16, 2024. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information.
