Luke Perry was called “the new James Dean,” and he was obsessed with it.
The actor quickly achieved popular status for his role as wealthy rebel Dylan McKay on “Beverly Hills, 90210.” He was portrayed as a reincarnation of the late actor who died in a car accident in 1955. The “Rebel Without a Cause” star was 24 years old.
Perry, who died in March 2019 at the age of 52, was 25 when the press began comparing her to Dean.
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Luke Perry (left), who skyrocketed to fame on “Beverly Hills, 90210,” was often compared to doomed actor James Dean. (Alamy/Getty)
“He didn’t like it,” Margaret Wappler told Fox News Digital. “He said, ‘I’m not like him. I’m not him. He checked out early, but I don’t want to check out early. I’m going to continue working the rest of my life. “I want to live a fulfilling life. A long and historic career.”
Wappler wrote a new book, “Good Bad Boy: How a Generation Grew Up with Luke Perry.” This book explores the life and career of the loner in television who passed away in 2019 at the age of 52. Wappler spoke to dozens of sources who know Perry publicly and privately.
She explained how the comparisons early in her career “scared” him.
Luke Perry, pictured here with co-star Shannen Doherty, said he was “frightened” by comparisons to James Dean. (Alamy)
“It was kind of a curse on 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 comparison to James Dean, there was something that resonated with that. .And I think that helped launch the show. I think it helped people… understand culturally what the show was about. [was] I’m trying to. But I think he felt a little bit tied down by it. ”
Dean was on his way to superstardom when he was involved in a fatal accident in his brand new Porsche Spyder convertible. He was on his way to a race in Salinas, California, 90 miles south of San Francisco. Although Dean only appeared in three films before his death, his death at a young age made him a legend.
Even his car, nicknamed “Little Bastard,” sparked conspiracy theories. History.com reports that the car was involved in several bizarre incidents and fatal accidents across the country before the wreckage of the vehicle disappeared. The station said it has not been seen since.
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James Dean is pictured here with “Little Bastard” hours before his death. (Alamy)
Perry addressed this comparison in a 1992 interview with Today.
“In a way, if the relationship with them gets strong enough, I’m going to have to pay for the fact that he checked out early,” Perry said at the time. “And I don’t want to do that. I want to continue working when I’m 30, 40, 50.” [however] I want it to be long. I think if I can no longer fulfill my James Dean fantasy for them, they’ll seek it out and get it from someone else, and I’ll be gone. ”
“I want to do something with my life,” Perry said. “When my time here is over, I don’t want to look back and see that I didn’t do anything. I mean, I didn’t influence anything else. There’s a lot of people. [who] Let their lives happen to them…I don’t want my life to happen to me. ”
Luke Perry has been thinking about his future in Hollywood since he was still a young star. (Alamy)
Perry, an Ohio native, starred in the series “Beverly Hills 90210” which aired from 1990 to 2000. In a 2006 interview with The Associated Press, Perry said that another classic Hollywood legend, Paul Newman, inspired her to pursue acting. He told how his mother had a picture of Newman on her mirror.
He played on the memory of hearing his mother say, “He’s the most beautiful man in the world, honey…he’s a movie star.”
“I thought, ‘Okay, that’s great.’ I looked at him and thought, ‘Oh, that’s who I didn’t want to be Paul Newman!'”
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The cast of “Beverly Hills, 90210” from left to right: Jennie Garth, Gabriel Carteris, Luke Perry, Jason Priestley, Brian Austin Green, Shannen Doherty, Tori Spelling, Ian Ziering. (Mark Sennett)
On “90210,” Perry’s character goes from loneliness to becoming part of a close-knit circle that includes twins Brenda and Brandon Walsh (Shannen Doherty, Jason Priestley), but also love, family, and drug addiction. He endured a series of setbacks. Perry left the series in 1995 to pursue other roles, and returned for the remainder of the show’s run as a guest star in 1998.
Mr. Wappler said Mr. Perry, in his own way, sometimes accepted being compared to Dean.
“He wasn’t stupid,” Wapler said. “He knew when to lean into it a little bit. There’s an early ‘90210’ episode filming at the Griffith Observatory [where] famous knife fight scene [in] ‘Rebel without a cause’ [was filmed]. And you wouldn’t do that unless you knew it would be honoring James Dean. So I think he understood when and how to acknowledge that, but it doesn’t define him.
Margaret Wappler’s book “A Good Bad Boy” will be on bookshelves on March 5th. (Simon & Schuster)
Wappler noted that while Perry “enjoyed” being a teen idol, she struggled with the role.
“Who doesn’t like attention?” she asked. “He was an actor. He wanted to be successful. He wanted that. But at the same time, especially when some things happened at the mall that were really out of control, he was intimidated by it. I think it was.”
”[When] He gets a little older and the show moves away from the world of teenagers and goes off to college. ” she explained. He is an adult not only in his own life, but also in his perception of the show.But I think [being a teen idol] I think that limited him a little bit as an actor, and I think it took some time and some moves to finally break out of that.”
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Luke Perry at the “Oz” premiere circa 2000. (Scott Gries/Image Direct)
“I think that’s why it was such a big step for him to play this role in ‘Oz,'” Wappler continued. “It really told the world, ‘I’m not that guy. I’m not some teen idol. I’m not James Dean Wright or anything. I’m my own guy.’ ”
Although Perry was best known for his role as McKay, he also had a prolific career in film and television. At the time of his death, he played Fred Andrews, the father of main character Archie Andrews and a construction company owner, for three seasons on the CW series “Riverdale,” a dark take on the comic book “Archie.” A fourth season was also planned. Perry also had a role in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Despite his success in Hollywood, Perry expanded his interests beyond acting. His family remained a priority. He has two children with his ex-wife Minnie Sharp.
Luke Perry is pictured attending the 2004 Target a Time for Heroes Celebrity Carnival, held to benefit the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, with his daughter Sophie and son Jack. You can see it. (S Granitz/Wire Image)
Wappler described Perry’s later years as a “renaissance.”
“He was in the middle of the second act,” she said. “‘Riverdale’ was a good role for him… [The role] He was a father and a good father. He really liked the character.he saw it [in] Himself. He took his fatherhood very seriously and loved being a good father. He was close to his children. ”
“He was preparing for a…bigger work cycle because the kids weren’t old enough,” she said. “His youngest son was 18 when he died. He told friends, ‘When the kids are ready, when they go to college…I’m really going to go back and do a lot of work. I’m going to. I’ll be back.’
Tori Spelling recalls Luke Perry going to a “brawl” for her during a “verbally abusive relationship”
From left to right: Riverdale cast members K.J. Apa, Luke Perry, and Cole Sprouse. (Stephen Ravkin/TVLine/Penske Media)
Perry was surrounded by family and friends when he suffered a massive stroke and died. He called 911 for medical help at his home in the Sherman Oaks neighborhood of Los Angeles, and was subsequently hospitalized.
Wappler said she hopes her book will introduce readers to a new side of Perry.
“He was a talented actor with a wide range of vision and ambition,” she said. “He tried to do so many things. But he was also a good person. Like Luke, I hope people value kindness in their lives, practice it, and embody the life they want.” I hope you do.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
