Luke Perry was called “the new James Dean” – and he was haunted by it.
The actor gained instant heartthrob status as wealthy rebel Dylan McKay on “Beverly Hills, 90210.” He was styled as a reincarnation of the late actor, who died in a car crash in 1955. The “Rebel Without a Cause” star was 24.
Perry, who died in March 2019 at 52 years old, was 25 when the press began comparing him to Dean.
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“He didn’t love it,” Margaret Wappler told Fox News Digital. “He said, ‘I’m not like him. I’m not him. He checked out early, and I don’t want to check out early. I want to go on to work for the rest of my life and have a long, storied career.'”
Wappler has written a new book, “A Good Bad Boy: Luke Perry and How a Generation Grew Up.” It explores the life and career of the TV loner, who died in 2019 at age 52. Wappler spoke to dozens of sources who knew Perry both personally and professionally.
She described how the comparison early on in his career “spooked” him.
“It was kind of cursing him or something,” Wappler explained. “And I think too, he wanted to be his own man. He wanted to be his own person. And the James Dean comparison, there was some resonance to that. And I think it helped launch the show. I think it helped people… culturally understand what the show [was] trying to do. But I think he felt a little strapped in by it.”
Dean was on his way to superstardom when he suffered a fatal crash in his brand-new Porsche Spyder convertible. He was on his way to a race in Salinas, California, 90 miles south of San Francisco. Dean only appeared in three films before his death, but dying young made him a legend.
Even his car, nicknamed “Little Bastard,” sparked conspiracy theories. After it was involved in several strange incidents and deadly crashes across the country, the remains of the vehicle vanished, History.com reported. According to the outlet, it has not been seen since.
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In a 1992 interview with “Today,” Perry addressed the comparison.
“I think that sort of in a way, if they make the association strong enough, I’ll have to pay the price for the fact that he checked out early,” Perry said at the time. “And I don’t want to. I hope to still be working when I’m 30 and 40 and 50 and [however] long I want to. I think when I can no longer fulfill that James Dean fantasy for them, they’ll look and get it from someone else, and I’ll be gone.”
“I want to do something with my life,” Perry shared. “When my time here is up, I don’t want to look back and see that I didn’t do anything. And by that I mean I didn’t have any effect on anything else. I see a lot of people [who] let their life happen to them… I don’t want my life to happen to me.”
The Ohio native starred in “Beverly Hills, 90210,” a series that ran from 1990 to 2000. In a 2006 interview with The Associated Press, Perry recounted how he was partially inspired to pursue acting by another classic Hollywood legend – Paul Newman. He described how his mother kept a photo of Newman in her mirror.
He played out the memory of hearing his mother say, “He’s the most beautiful man in the world, honey… he’s a movie star.”
“I thought, ‘OK, that’s cool.’ I watched him and, ‘Yeah, man, who didn’t want to be Paul Newman!’”
In “90210,” Perry’s character went from loner to part of a close-knit circle that included twins Brenda and Brandon Walsh (Shannen Doherty, Jason Priestley), but also endured a string of romantic, family and other setbacks, including drug addiction. Perry left the series in 1995 to pursue other roles, returning in 1998 for the rest of the show’s run as a guest star.
Wappler said that in his way, Perry embraced being compared to Dean at times.
“He was no fool,” said Wappler. “He knew when to lean into it a little bit. There’s an early ‘90210’ episode where they film at the Griffith Observatory [where] the famous knife fight scene [in] ‘Rebel Without a Cause’ [was filmed]. And you’re not going to do that unless you know that’s tipping your cap to James Dean. So I think he understood when and how to acknowledge it, but not let it define him.”
While Perry “had fun” being a teen idol, he did struggle with the role, Wappler noted.
“Who doesn’t love the attention?” she asked. “He was an actor. He wanted to be successful. He wanted it. But at the same time, I think he was freaked out by it, especially when there were a number of really out-of-control mall events that happened in ’90, ’91, ’92. The kids were getting stampeded. A girl broke her leg at a mall event. It was scary to him. And I think it was a little off-putting.”
“[When] he gets a little older, the show shifts away from the teenage world and goes into college,” she explained. “I think he was sort of in a way relieved to get out of that teen idol mode and become more of this full-fleshed adult, not only in his own life, but in the perception of the show. But… I think [being a teen idol] did box him in. I think it did limit him for a bit as an actor, and I think it took him some time and some moves to ultimately get away from that.”
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“I think that’s why taking this role in ‘Oz’ was a big step for him,” Wappler continued. “It really said to the world, ‘I’m not that guy. I’m not a teenage idol. I’m not James Dean Light or whatever. I am my own man.’”
Although Perry was best known for his role as McKay, he enjoyed a prolific film and TV career. At the time of his death, he played construction company owner Fred Andrews, father of main character Archie Andrews, for three seasons on “Riverdale,” the CW series that gave a dark take on the “Archie” comics. A fourth season was slated. Perry had also wrapped his role in Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.”
Despite his success in Hollywood, Perry expanded his interests far beyond acting. His family remained a priority. He is survived by two children with ex-wife Minnie Sharp.
Wappler described Perry’s final years as “a renaissance.”
“He was in the middle of a second act,” she said. “’Riverdale’ was a good role for him… [The role] was a dad and a good dad. He really loved that about the character. He saw that [in] himself. He really took being a dad very seriously and loved being a good dad. He was close to his kids.”
“He was gearing up to… go into a much bigger work cycle because his kids were not old enough,” she shared. “When he died, his youngest was 18. He told friends, ‘When my kids are ready, when my kids are in college… I’m going to really go back and do a lot of work. I’m going to make a comeback.’ He was in the midst of that. It was happening to him… He was early in his comeback…. Had he lived, I think he would’ve really soared up.”
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Perry was surrounded by family and friends when he died following a massive stroke. He was hospitalized after a 911 call summoned medical help to his home in the Sherman Oaks section of Los Angeles.
Wappler said she hopes her book will introduce readers to a new side of Perry.
“He was a talented actor with a lot of range and ambition,” she said. “He tried to do so many things. But he was also a good man… I hope that, like Luke, people will value kindness in their lives and practice it, and embody a life you want for yourself.”
