When a GenX Icon Dies
Luke Perry’s character Dylan McKay had great hair, a cool car and all the girls. Was it really all so simple then?
The death of Luke Perry from the after effects of a stroke was a sharp blow to many of us who were sure it wasn’t time for our pop culture icons to begin leaving us unless it was from a drug overdose or an unexpected accident. Perry may have been 52, but for a generation, he’s still the dreamy teenage-ish Dylan McKay, “Beverly Hills, 90210" pseudo-bad boy on a motorcycle trying to decide between the snippy brunette Brenda (the equally iconic Shannen Doherty) or the bubbly blonde Kelly (Jennie Garth).
Perry himself described his character’s genesis as part of producer Aaron Spelling’s desire for the character of Dylan to be the show’s brooding loner that added a touch of pathos to what was otherwise a literal day at the beach. “Everybody thinks he’s got everything going, and it’s just not always that great,” Perry said, “But he drove a cool car and had cool hair.” He was so right about the hair. The guys’ hair on that show was Everything.
I started my journalism career around the same time Brenda and Brandon Walsh (Doherty and Jason Priestly) moved to Beverly Hills from Minneapolis. My editor nicknamed “Princess GenX” or “X” for short and turned to me when anything related to MTV, the Fox Network, Princess Diana or anything remotely “young…
