There have been many actors who have made remarkable comebacks in recent years, including the late Luke Perry. After taking the world by storm in the ‘90s with his portrayal of bad boy Dylan McKay in Beverly Hills, 90210, he returned to the teen drama genre in the mid-2010s as Fred Andrews, the father of KJ Apa’s Archie in Riverdale, a dark reboot of the ARCHIE Comics on The CW.
Perry died mid-way through Season 4 in 2019 after a stroke, but the cast still carries his memory with them. This includes Madelaine Petsch, who opened up about the pieces of advice he gave her.
Having gone through the teen drama phenomenon himself, Perry had been known to give advice to the young cast on Riverdale, and Petsch, who played Cheryl Blossom on all seven seasons, revealed what her co-star taught her. While appearing on Watch What Happens Live!, she was asked by a fan what the best piece of advice she got from Perry about acting or Hollywood in general was, and The Strangers – Chapter 2 star shared just how much he truly helped her:
Luke taught me so much. He was really a champion in my career, and he held my hand through the process, because he went through similar fame on 90210. He gave me two really strong pieces of advice. One is don’t read anything about yourself ever. I don’t listen to that, it’s really hard.
It’s not surprising that Perry had a lot of advice to give and seemed to act as a mentor to the cast, given what he went through while on 90210. And I love that he made sure to share what he had learned and still kept with him after all those years. And not only did the advice help Petsch personally, it also helped her professionally, as she shared the second piece of advice that really stuck with her:
The second was, the first thing you can do on a set is introduce yourself to every single crew member and remember all of their names.
Perry’s death had a big impact on not only Hollywood but the world. So many people grew up with him on 90210, and many more were introduced to him with Riverdale and other projects. It definitely came as a surprise when his death was announced, and when Riverdale paid tribute to him in the first episode after, it made it all the more real. His death stayed with the series until the end, and much of the cast shared memories of Perry ahead of the series finale in 2023.
It’s nice to know that even years later, his impact is as big as ever.
Thanks to streaming and those Luke Perry worked with, his legacy will live on forever, and now, Petsch has those two strong pieces of advice to give to the next young actor she works with. And she also likely has plenty of stories to share or keep with her until the end of time. Fans can watch all seasons of Beverly Hills, 90210 with a Paramount+ subscription and Riverdale with a Netflix subscription if want to go back and watch Luke Perry do what he did best.