Luke Perry

This article is about the American actor. For the English industrial artist, see Luke Perry (artist).

Luke Perry
Perry in 2004.
Born	Coy Luther Perry III (1966-10-11) October 11, 1966 Mansfield, Ohio, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1982–present
Spouse(s)	Minnie Sharp (1993–2003)
Children	2

Coy Luther "Luke" Perry III (born October 11, 1966) is an American actor. He starred as Dylan McKay on the TV series Beverly Hills, 90210 from 1990 to 1995, and again from 1998 to 2000.

Childhood

Perry was born in Mansfield, Ohio and raised in Fredericktown, Ohio. There, he was the school mascot, the Fredericktown High School Freddie. His mother, Ann Bennett, was a homemaker, and his father, Coy Luther Perry, Jr., was a steelworker. Perry likes to go home annually for the Fredericktown Tomato Show, an annual street fair.

Perry moved to Los Angeles shortly after high school to pursue acting as he did not have any opportunities to do so in Ohio. He worked as a paver and lived in various cities including Huntington Beach, Long Beach, Downey, and Paramount.

Career

Perry at the 1991 Emmy Awards.

In an interview with Whoopi Goldberg in the 1990s, Perry said he auditioned for 215 acting jobs in New York before finally scoring a TV commercial. After appearing in the music video "Be Chrool To Your Scuel" for the band Twisted Sister alongside Alice Cooper, Perry's earliest roles were in the daytime soap operas Loving (1987–1988) and Another World (1988–1989).

Following this, he then won the role of brooding millionaire's son Dylan McKay on Fox's appealing teen drama, Beverly Hills, 90210. He had auditioned for the role of Steve Sanders, a role that went to actor Ian Ziering before being cast as Dylan McKay. While starring on 90210, Perry then won a supporting role in the original film version of the Joss Whedon's Buffy The Vampire Slayer (1992). Perry had already become a very popular teen idol in the early 1990s. Perry also starred in Terminal Bliss in 1992.

Perry starred as Lane Frost in 8 Seconds in 1994. In an attempt to find more mature roles, he decided to leave Beverly Hills, 90210 in 1995. In the same year, he took a part in the Italian movie Vacanze di Natale '95, playing himself. Although he announced that 90210 was behind him, his departure would eventually turn out to be for only three years. During that time, Perry starred in the independent film Normal Life opposite Ashley Judd, starred in the TV science fiction movie Invasion (1997), a Rodney King drama Riot (1997) and also had a small role in Luc Besson's science fiction adventure film The Fifth Element (1997). Even though Perry had left 90210 in 1995, he returned in 1998 for financial reasons. Perry starred in the 1999 film Storm. He then went on to star in a 2002 television movie called The Triangle.

From 2001 to 2002, he starred in the HBO prison drama Oz, in which he performed a full frontal nude scene, as Reverend Jeremiah Cloutier. From 2002 to 2004, he starred in the post-apocalyptic TV series Jeremiah. In 2005 Perry was rumored to be in Day of the Dead 2: Contagium, but did not appear to be in the film. 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. In 2007, he landed the role of Tommy "Santa" Santorelli on the film The Sandlot: Heading Home and in the 2008 western A Gunfighter's Pledge.

Perry appeared in the HBO series John from Cincinnati, which premiered on June 10, 2007, and ran for 10 episodes, with the series finale airing on August 12, 2007. He also stars in the Swedish film Äntligen Midsommar (Finally Midsummer) which was released in the summer of 2009. 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." However, he did not reprise his role on 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."

Perry finally revealed a major reason as to why he did not want to be part of this revival, citing the show's long-time producer Aaron Spelling: "The difference between CW bringing something back and Aaron Spelling doing something back is significant. "And I cannot do it without Aaron." However, Shannen Doherty, Jennie Garth, and Tori Spelling reprised their roles in the 2008 revival of the series.

Perry has done considerable voice-over work for various animated series, often playing himself. He played himself (as Krusty the Clown's half brother) in an episode of The Simpsons (1993). He voiced himself in an episode of Johnny Bravo, giving Johnny dating advice after Johnny saved him from a stampede of fan girls. Perry parodied himself in an episode of Family Guy, in which he was labeled as gay by Peter and he sues the family. His other voice work includes The Incredible Hulk, Biker Mice from Mars, Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm, and The Night of the Headless Horseman.

Aside from his role on Family Guy, Perry has also guest-starred as gay characters in the sitcoms Spin City (1997) and Will & Grace (2005): he appeared as Carter Heywood's ex-boyfriend who subsequently fell in love with a woman on Spin City, and played a geeky birdwatcher who caught the eye of Jack McFarland on Will & Grace. 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. In 2008, Perry guest-starred as rapist Noah Sibert in the season premiere of the television series Law & Order: SVU. 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!".

In 2009, Luke also lent his voice talents in the Thomas Nelson's audio Bible production known as The Word of Promise. In this dramatized audio, Perry played the characters of Saint Stephen and Judas the disciple. The project also featured a large ensemble of other well known Hollywood actors including Jim Caviezel, Lou Gossett Jr., John Rhys-Davies, Jon Voight, Gary Sinise, Jason Alexander, Christopher McDonald, Marissa Tomei and John Schneider.

Perry appeared on Broadway in 2001 in a revival of The Rocky Horror Show playing Brad Majors.

In 2004 he appeared in the London production of When Harry Met Sally as Harry, alongside Alyson Hannigan as Sally.

Following his appearance in the stage adaptation of When Harry Met Sally, Perry was asked to reprise his role as Dylan McKay in a guest appearance on 90210. Due to scheduling conflicts with Shannen Doherty, he was subsequently written out of the episode. He appeared as the American version of Inspector Space-Time in an episode of Community.

Personal life

Perry was married to Minnie Sharp from 1993 to 2003. The couple share joint custody of their two children, Jack (born June 15, 1997) and Sophie (born June 7, 2000). Perry dated Mindy McKay from 2010 to 2011.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1991	Scorchers	Ray Ray
1992	Terminal Bliss	John Hunter
1992	Buffy the Vampire Slayer	Oliver Pike
1994	8 Seconds	Lane Frost
1995	Vacanze di Natale '95 (Christmas Holidays '95)	Himself
1996	Normal Life	Chris Anderson
1996	American Strays	Johnny
1997	The Fifth Element	Billy
1997	Lifebreath	Martin Devoe
1997	Riot	Boomer	Television film Segment: "Empty"
1997	Invasion	Beau Stark	Television film
1999	The Night of the Headless Horseman	Brom Bones	Voice Television film
1998	Indiscreet	Michael Nash
1999	The Heist	Jack
1999	The Florentine	Frankie
1999	Storm Tracker	Dr. Ron Young	Direct-to-video
2000	Attention Shoppers	Mark Pinnalore
2001	The Enemy	Dr. Michael Ashton
2001	The Triangle	Stu Sheridan	Television film
2001	Dirt	Attorney
2002	Fogbound	Bob
2002	Johnson County War	Harry Hammett	Television film
2003	Down the Barrel	David	Direct-to-video
2005	Dishdogz	Tony
2005	Descent	Dr. Jake Rollins	Television film
2005	Supernova	Dr. Chris Richardson	Television film
2007	The Sandlot: Heading Home	Tommy "Santa" Santorelli	Direct-to-video
2007	Alice Upside Down	Ben McKinley
2008	A Gunfighter's Pledge	Matt Austin	Television film
2008	A Very Merry Daughter Of the Bride	Charlie	Television film
2009	Angel and the Badman	Laredo	Television film
2009	Äntligen midsommar!	Sam
2009	Upstairs	Ward Weaver
2009	Silent Venom	Lt. Comdr. James O'Neill	Direct-to-video
2009	Sam Steele and the Junior Detective Agency	The Cat
2010	Redemption Road	Boyd
2010	Final Storm	Silas Hendershot	Direct-to-DVD
2010	Hanna's Gold	Cole
2010	Good Intentions	Chester Milford
2011	Goodnight for Justice	John Goodnight	Television film
2012	Goodnight for Justice: The Measure of a Man	John Goodnight	Television film
2012	Goodnight for Justice: Queen of Hearts	John Goodnight	Television film
2013	Red Wing	Carl Blanton

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1982	Voyagers!	Union Prisoner	Uncredited Episode: "The Day the Rebs Took Lincoln"
1987–1988	Loving	Ned Bates
1988–1989	Another World	Kenny	10 episodes
1990–1995 1998–2000	Beverly Hills, 90210	Dylan McKay	200 episodes
1993	The Simpsons	Himself	Voice Episode: "Krusty Gets Kancelled"
1994–1995	Biker Mice from Mars	Napoleon Brie	Voice 6 episodes
1996	Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm	Sub-Zero	Voice 13 episodes
1996–1997	The Incredible Hulk	Rick Jones	Voice 4 episodes
1997	Spin City	Spence	Episode: "Kiss Me, Stupid"
1999–2000	Pepper Ann	Stewart Waldinger	Voice 3 episodes
2000	Johnny Bravo	Himself	Voice Episode: "Luke Perry's Guide to Love"
2000	Family Guy	Himself	Voice Episode: "The Story on Page One"
2001	Night Visions	Dr. Michael Sears	Episode: "Now He's Coming Up the Stairs"
2001–2002	Oz	Rev. Jeremiah Cloutier	10 episodes
2002–2004	Jeremiah	Jeremiah	35 episodes
2003	Clone High	Ponce de León	Voice Episode: "Litter Kills - Literally"
2005	Will & Grace	Aaron	Episode: "The Birds & the Bees"
2005	What I Like About You	Todd	3 episodes
2006	Windfall	Peter Schaefer	13 episodes
2007	Biker Mice from Mars	Napoleon Brie	Voice Episode: "Once Upon a Time on Earth"
2007	John from Cincinnati	Linc Stark	10 episodes
2008	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Noah Sibert	Episode: "Trials"
2008	Criminal Minds	Benjamin Cyrus	Episode: "Minimal Loss"
2009	The Storm	Stillman	Miniseries
2010	Leverage	Dalton Rand	Episode: "The Future Job"
2010	Generator Rex	Jacob	Episode: "The Architect"
2010	FCU: Fact Checkers Unit	Luke	8 episodes
2011	Pound Puppies	Fang	Voice Episode: "Rebel Without A Collar"
2012	Raising Hope	Ghost of Arbor Day	Episode: "Arbor Daze"
2012–2013	Malibu Stacy	Robbie Newton	15 episodes
2012–2013	Body of Proof	CDC Officer Dr. Charlie Stafford	5 episodes
2013	Community	American Inspector Spacetime	Episode: "Conventions of Space and Time"
2014	Major Crimes	John Worth	Episode: "Cutting Loose"

External links

• Luke Perry at IMDb