LUKE PERRY

(11 October 1966 - 4 March 2019)

The American actor Luke Perry, who has died aged 52 from a stroke, became a teenage heartthrob from his 200 appearances during the 1990s on the television show Beverly Hills, 90210 which depicted the lives and mainly the loves of a group of students in southern California. He played Dylan McKay, a young man constantly on the edge of society with bouts of alcoholism and an advanced sexual appetite for which the actor was compared to the late James Dean. The show began quietly but soon took off when it dealt with problems such as drugs, Aids, rape and bankruptcy. Perry was just one of a cast of bright young things including Jason Priestley, Shannen Doherty, Tori Spelling and Hilary Swank. Together they made the show a must-see programme for the youth audience. Perry began his TV career in 1982 in Voyagers! Followed by Loving, Another World, At Home With the Webbers and several animated series including The Incredible Hulk. In between TV shows, he scored some films such as Terminal Bliss (his first) and then Scorchers with Faye Dunaway and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He starred in John G. Avildsen’s 8 Seconds, was with Ashley Judd in Normal Life and played Billy in Luc Besson’s The Fifth Element with Bruce Willis. Throughout the 1990s he was appearing in Beverly Hills, 90210, while his other work just saw him marking time. In 1995 he took a three-year break from Beverly Hills, 90210 but then returned to it until 2000.  More television followed, as well some feature films, but none that had any particular interest and few, if any, reached the UK. While Perry was more popular in the US than here, he played the Billy Crystal role in When Harry Met Sally on stage in London, although it was not well received. In the last few years of his life Perry was in over fifty episodes of the TV series Riverdale, about a gang of youthful amateur sleuths solving local crimes. At the time of his death, Luke Perry had finished Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Quentin Tarantino’s sideways glance at Tinseltown, which is due for release in August 2019. It could well be Luke Perry’s best film. Perry married and divorced the actress Rachel Sharp and they have two children, Jack and Sophie.

MICHAEL DARVELL