Luke Perry Net Worth

Biography of Luke Perry

Luke Perry is an American actor, star of the TV series Beverly Hills, 90210. It was thanks to the role of the “bad guy” Dylan McKay that he became the idol of millions of viewers. Unlike many colleagues in the series, he did not disappear from the radar: he played more than eighty roles in films and television series, and in 2017 he reasserted himself in the Riverdale series.

Childhood and youth

The childhood and youth of the future actor were held in Ohio. Coy Luther Perry III (Coy Luther Perry) was born in Mansfield in a poor American family. His father worked at a factory, his mother raised Luke, his older brother Tom and younger sister Amy.

Luke Perry and Matthew Perry are not relatives, but namesakes.

When our hero was seven years old, his parents divorced, and soon his mother remarried. The family moved to the small village of Fredericktown, where Luke went to first grade. He could not boast of excellent academic performance, but the whole school was proud of his sporting achievements.

The boy played tennis, football, played in a teenage basketball team and was a regular participant in all local sports competitions. Luke even had the honor of becoming Freddie Bird, the mascot of the school team, and he was lowered from a helicopter right onto the football field.

Since that time, Luke liked to be in the center of attention and attract the enthusiastic looks of others. Therefore, after leaving school, he made an unexpected decision for his parents to become an actor, and went to Los Angeles, the center of the American film industry and a city of great opportunities.

First steps

At first, life in a huge metropolis was not at all the way the young, ambitious provincial had imagined. At acting auditions and castings, he was most often shown the door, so Luke had to sell shoes, install door handles and even lay asphalt to earn a living.

Fate took pity on him in 1985, when the young man was lucky enough to star with Alice Cooper in the video of the then extremely popular rock band Twisted Sister. Finally, the directors drew attention to a charming young handsome man who looked great in the frame. Luke received small roles in the TV series Lovers and Underworld, which, although they did not become his finest hour, helped the aspiring actor gain the necessary experience.

finest hour

In 1990, Perry was invited to a casting in the new youth series Beverly Hills, 90210, which was launched by Aaron Spelling. At first, Luke auditioned for the role of Steve Sanders, but in the end it went to Ian Ziering. But Spelling liked the young actor, and the producer offered him the role of a minor character – Dylan McKay, a charming adventurer and conqueror of women’s hearts.

Dylan’s storyline was not supposed to come out in a couple of episodes. But the character was so fond of the viewer that he became one of the central characters of the story.

Already in the summer of 1991, it became obvious that the series was a lucky ticket for all the young actors who took part in it. The story of “golden” teenagers, who experienced the same problems on the screen as their peers from ordinary families, became a real TV hit of the 90s.

For ten seasons, viewers with undisguised interest followed the life ups and downs of the heroes, who during this time managed to become their idols. “Beverly Hills” made stars not only Luke, but also Shannen Doherty, Tori Spelling, Jennie Garth and Jason Priestley. Perry starred in the series through 1995 and left after playing six seasons.

Luke stated that he was no longer satisfied with the quality of the script and far-fetched, “sucked from the finger” storylines. Later, the actor admitted that he did not want to act without Spelling, who was “pushed” by The CW.

After leaving the series, Perry decided to switch to big cinema. He played a police officer in the crime film “Normal Life” (1995), lit up in the cult “The Fifth Element” by Luc Besson (1997). However, the image of Dylan was so firmly stuck to the actor that the audience could hardly perceive him in other roles. And the fees were disproportionately less than the gigantic sums that he earned in the series. Therefore, in 1998, the actor returned to Beverly Hills (mainly due to financial reasons) and remained in it until the last season, which was released in 2000.

Life after Beverly Hills

It cannot be said that after the end of the series, Luke was left out of work, but he failed to jump above his head. Although there are many lines in his filmography, with rare exceptions, he got secondary characters. But in 2001, he made his Broadway debut in the production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

For two seasons (2001 – 2002) he starred in the Oz series, then devoted two years to the Jeremiah series, where he got the main role – the hero of the post-apocalyptic world, surviving after a devastating pandemic.

In 2006, the actor became one of the key characters in the comedy series Big Luck about a group of friends who suddenly won the lottery.

Over time, the quality of the projects that Luke agreed to participate in fell. It seemed that everyone forgot about the idol of the youth of the 90s, but in 2017 luck smiled at him – Perry was approved for the role of Fred, Archie’s father, one of the main characters of the Riverdale series, played by KJ Apa. The ratings of the project beat the wildest expectations, and the actor, one might say, survived the second wave of fame.

Luke Perry’s personal life

In the life of the charming heartthrob Luke Perry, there have been many love stories that the actor does not seek to put on public display. In 1993, the actor married actress Rachel Sharp, who gave birth to his son Jack (1997) and daughter Sophia (2003). Ten years later, their marriage fell apart, but Luke continued to patronize his children and tried to see them more often.

In 2015, Perry had a precancerous tumor removed from his rectum, which was discovered during a routine checkup. The actor then experienced many exciting moments and since then he has not only been attentive to his health, but also urged all his fans to do a complete medical examination more often. Alas, life is too unpredictable.

Last years of life and death

The long-awaited premiere of Quentin Tarantino’s new action-packed thriller Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was scheduled for the summer of 2019, in which our hero was filmed surrounded by such stars as Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Al Pacino. There were also talks about restarting the series “Beverly Hills 90210” with old characters.

But Luke did not live to see the premiere – and after all, when he got the role from Tarantino, film critics predicted a new flowering of his career for him. On February 27, Luke became ill. Doctors diagnosed a stroke. On March 4, 2019, he passed away at home, surrounded by his family.

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