Hello gentle reader. I have been gong to Dragon*Con in Atlanta GA now for quite a few years and one of the things that I have really grown to love is the attendance by celebrities and pseudo-celebrities. As a member of The Unique Geek, I have agreed to do a weekly highlight on one (possibly more than one) of the Con attendees that qualifies for ‘celebrity’ status.
This time: Luke Perry
I remember Luke Perry as Dylan. I don’t remember his character’s last name (it was McKay based on his D*C bio). He was Dylan, boyfriend to Brenda, friend to Brandon. Dylan drove a black Porche that was reminiscent of James Dean. In fact, I would bet lots of money that Dylan McKay was supposed to BE James Dean brought from the 1950’s into the 1990’s. Yes, I speak of Beverly Hills 90210.
90210 was quite the teen soap opera. As I recall I was drawn into watching it because of the girl I was seeing. That being said, I will openly admit I then got into actually watching it. Dylan was a character that was just fuckin’ cool. With the addition of years and experience, I realize he was a walking cliche and a cad, but hey, at the time he was cooler than a February morning in Minneapolis. You didn’t mess with Dylan. He had a temper. He was brooding. But he couldn’t just be cruel, he always had a way for redeeming himself. Yeah he was the living embodiment of the “Bad Boy Cliche“. Meh, so what, I liked the character then and still think that Dylan oozed cool.
It’s the movie that he made during the run of Beverly Hills 90210 that gives him entry to Dragon*Con, Buffy The Vampire Slayer. I saw the film. I thought/think it sucked. But hey, Whedon had to start somewhere and in reality he was just the writer, I bet it’s safe to pin the suckitude on director Fran Kuzui. So Perry was at the “Ground Zero” of the Whedonverse. That’s pretty cool, you know, except for the part about being in the sucky movie.
Mr. Perry has had an interesting ride in Hollywood since 90210 and Buffy. The movie I most remember him in I suppose is 8 seconds, a movie about a rodeo rider… and a film I never saw. I have seen Mr. Perry in episodes of Will & Grace, drawn into episodes of Family Guy, and Criminal Minds. I love the fact that Mr. Perry is still finding roles doing what he presumably loves and I suspect that there is at least one more big role out there that will attract the attention of we, the American population.
Best of luck to Mr. Perry.
I’m most looking forward to seeing Luke Perry more than any other celebrity and for none of the things that you’ve listed. To me, Luke Perry was the star of Jeremiah. Which also stared Malcolm Jamal-Warner & Sean Astin (who is also coming!). It was a cable series created and written by J. Michael Straczynski of Babyon 5 fame. Jeremiah was just as great as B5, it really felt like the same sense of intrigue, action, philosophy, and everything that made Babylon 5 so great. So, don’t forget about Jeremiah!
+1 Point to Tony for the Jeremiah comment.