It’s been over a year since his passing, but the world will never forget the sweet soul that was Luke Perry.
The actor was most known for playing teen heartthrob Dylan McKay in Beverly Hills, 90210 , and then Archie’s dad on Riverdale .
RELATED STORIES
To help keep his memory alive, here are 10+ facts about the late star.
1. Luke Perry isn’t his real name.
It’s actually Coy Luther Perry III . He was named after his father, Coy Perry Sr.
He changed it when he was trying to become an actor by shortening Luther to Luke and using it as his first name.
2. He was the first crush of many celebs.
Even celebs can’t resist a bad boy.
Celebs who had a crush on the ’90s Beverly Hills, 90210 star included Rachel Leigh Cook and Sarah Michelle Gellar. I mean, really, can you blame them?
3. He was never a fan of being a teen idol.
After he hit it big-time with 90210 , he struggled with different aspects of fame, particularly the lack of privacy.
When asked about being a teen idol by People , he said, “Man, I hate those two [expletive] words!”
4. He remained close friends with his *90210* cast.
He may have played the bad boy, Dylan McKay, in Beverly Hills, 90210 from 1990 to 2000, but he was the very definition of “nice” on set.
This cemented life-long friendships with the cast and crew.
5. He comes from humble beginnings.
He grew up in Fredericktown, Ohio to a homemaker mother and a steelworker father.
Before he made it as an actor, he was working for an asphalt paving company and a doorknob factory.
He told *ET* that these blue collar jobs kept him humble when he finally landed *90210*.
“A year ago I was shoveling asphalt and a year ago I could be doing it again,” he said.
“I think it keeps a good perspective on things when you remember that.”
6. He auditioned 216 times before he landed his first role.
This was for the role of Ned Bates in the ABC soap, Loving .
The show ran from 1983 to 1995 and he even relocated to New York City for the role.
7. He almost wasn’t on *90210*.
It’s hard to imagine the show without him, but that was almost reality since the studio didn’t want him.
“I was a guest star, and Aaron [Spelling] wanted to make me a regular,” he shared with The Hollywood Reporter in 1991.
In the end, it was Spelling who got him cast.
“The studio didn’t want to pick up the deal, and he used that instance to illustrate an important principle: He gets to pick who’s on the show. He didn’t want me to have to go in the room with the network, but he calmly looked at me and said, ‘Go get ’em, kid.'”
8. He wasn’t added to *90210’s* payroll until season three.
Since the studio didn’t want him, Spelling went out on a limb for him in more ways than one.
In addition to getting him cast, he paid for Luke’s salary for the first two years.
9. Shannon Doherty decided to do the *90210* reboot because of him.
The actress, who was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer earlier this year, was so shocked by Luke’s death.
“It’s so weird for me to be diagnosed and then somebody who was, you know, seemingly healthy to go first,” Doherty told Good Morning America .
Then, in an interview with *ABC News*, she confirmed how Luke’s death affected her.
“One of the reasons, along with Luke, that I did 90210 and didn’t really tell anybody [was] because I thought, people can look at that [as] people with stage 4 can work too.”
10. *Riverdale’s* KJ Apa took his death really hard.
Apa’s character, Archie Andrews, played Luke Perry’s on-screen son on The CW’s Riverdale .
“It’s not every day you come across a guy like Luke,” the actor said about Luke on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon .
Apa said that Luke looked after him on set by keeping his parents updated on how he was doing.
“Like if I had a cold or something, he’d be like, ‘I took some Gatorade to his apartment the other day.’”
11. He had two kids.
The 90210 alum shared son Jack and daughter Sophie, with his ex-wife, Minnie Sharp.
He was always so close with them and even gave advice to other parents two years before his untimely death.
“It’s hard to tell people how to raise their kids and I’m certainly no authority on raising children,” he said.
“But love them as much as you can and talk to them as much as you can,” Perry told Us Weekly . “Make time for them.”
12. Leonardo DiCaprio was “star-struck” by him.
The pair filmed a scene together in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood before Luke’s passing.
“I remember being in my teens and he was the manifestation of the new [James] Dean on television and everyone was crazy about him,” DiCaprio told Entertainment Weekly .
He was also struck by how kind Luke was.
When Perry was on set for the film, he said, “there was this immediate excitement,” he said, while Brad Pitt called him an “incredibly generous man.”
Last Updated on October 2, 2020 by Sarah Kester
