When Luke Perry suddenly passed away earlier this year, the acting world lost a kind light. I did not know Luke Perry personally, so that may seem like a bit of a projection but from all accounts, Luke embodied the kind of man he portrayed on TV: kind, loving, and above all else, a man who seemed to care about the people around him not out of obligation but out of a genuine desire to see the world be more loving.
I knew Luke Perry from Riverdale, and wrote a more Fred Andrews-focused memoriam earlier in the year, but here we are celebrating the whole of his life and career. . . of which I know very little about. I missed the era of teenage heartthrob Luke Perry in Beverly Hills 90210 and, despite having watched the entirety of the TV show, I missed out on the psuedo-pilot film of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But, while I may not know much about those roles, I do know that they were richer for them being his.
Any time Luke was on the screen, it was clear we were in the presence of someone who was giving his all to the role. He became Fred Andrews or, perhaps, Fred Andrews became him. His warm and, sometimes, sad smile, the way he put the livelihood of his workers over himself, his penchant and insistence on second, third, even fourth chances, when anyone else would have given up after the first, it all adds up to craft a picture that is flattering and mythic.
Is it a true one? I do not know. What I do know is that even if it wasn’t 100% accurate, the kernel of truth is that Luke strived to be that kind of person.
I also know that without Luke behind Archie’s father, he could have become a bitter or cynical version of himself, rather than the human and flawed character he was. There was rarely an anger under his words, in his eyes, or in his tone, and even when he stumbled and fell, when he did get mad, beneath it all was love and the desire to understand. And when he stopped to listen to others that cared about him and that he cared about, he would learn and adapt, letting the best of him, and them, shine through.
He was not naive, there are always people who do not care to be kinder, but neither was he willing to wall himself off from the possibility that there are just as many who are simply stumbling around in the darkness, looking for any light, and that he can be the right light to chase away the wrong.
We can all take a lesson from that, I know I can.
Luke Perry: 1966-2019
