Sad news for a lot of us from a certain generation: Luke Perry is currently being hospitalized after suffering what’s being described as a “massive stroke.” Luke is only 52 years old and he’s currently enjoying more TV success as Archie’s dad Fred Andrews on Riverdale. For most of us of a certain age, Luke will always be Dylan McKay from Beverly Hills 90210, the ‘90s James Dean. TMZ made the situation with Luke sound really rough:
Luke Perry suffered a massive stroke Wednesday, and is currently hospitalized … TMZ has learned. Paramedics responded to Luke’s home in Sherman Oaks around 9:40 AM. We know the call came into the fire department for someone suffering a stroke, and Luke was transported to a nearby hospital. It’s unclear what his condition is right now.
The 52-year-old who stars as Archie’s dad, Fred Andrews, on “Riverdale” … had been shooting episodes recently in L.A. on the Warner Bros. lot.
Luke’s medical crisis coincidentally struck on the very same day Fox announced it will reboot “Beverly Hills, 90210” — the show on which he shot to fame, playing Dylan McKay in the 90s. While his former costars — Jennie Garth, Ian Ziering, Jason Priestly, Brian Austin Green, Tori Spelling and Gabrielle Carteris — will be on the revived series, Luke has not signed on to the project.
Although a family member says Luke was placed in a coma, his rep says he is not. We’re told he is sedated. A rep for Luke tells TMZ … he is currently under observation at the hospital.
That’s what Luke’s publicist, Arnold Robinson, has told media outlets, that Luke is “currently under observation.” It feels like the first snippets of information we’ve gotten might be exaggerated, because if Luke really did suffer a massive stroke, I feel like they wouldn’t be using such mild terminology like “oh, he’s just under observation.” Plus, 52 is pretty young to suffer a “massive stroke” out of nowhere, if that’s what really happened. Basically, I came in this morning hoping that someone had made a statement like “no, it’s not that bad, Luke will be fine,” but maybe that’s just wishful thinking on my part. Prayers for Luke, I love this guy.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
How awful. Fingers crossed he recovers quickly.
Or agents /publicists are saying “in observation” to protect his career and minimize damage as long as they can ?
Seems more realistic than being upset by someone exaggerating a stroke vs massive stroke. Tabloids aren’t smart enough to make that diagnosis. They usually only come up with exhaustion and lupus. Also not / ton you can do for stroke, hence .. “observation”
Yeah, my brother had a massive stroke at 42, and he spent the first few days in intensive care, with doctors not sure he’d even survive. Long story short, he survived & went back to work four months later. Here’s hoping for Luke and his family that he’ll have a good outcome.
Hopefully he received treatment quickly and can recover. How devastating for him and his loved ones.
I’m wondering if Drs actually determined it was massive stroke or if whoever talked to TMZ exaggerated it. Either way I hope and pray for his recovery because strokes are so cruel to the brain and body. My mom had a series of strokes. The initial stroke wasn’t that bad, but having them in succession caused irreparable damage and she was sadly bedridden until she died 2 yrs later.
I would bet on TMZ exaggerating. I mean why else mention it happened the same day as the reboot of 90210 of which Luke Perry was not going to participate in. I hope all goes well for him. Sorry to hear about your mom. My mom had a few small TIA’s in her early 70’s. Luckily for her she was not physically effected although her short memory was effected.
I think on the 911 the person said “massive stroke” and TMZ is reporting that as if whoever placed the call was a medical professional that knew exactly what the diagnosis was.
😰😰😰☹😧😧😧😢😢😢😢😢😢
Stroke can happen at any age. A co-worker’s daughter suffered one at age 3. Sending healing thoughts his way.
Yep, there’s no age too young to suffer a massive stroke. A friend’s baby had one in utero. She was born with disabilities. It can happen to anyone at anytime – which is the shittiest thing about strokes. My FIL has one 18 months ago. Can’t walk, or do much for himself anymore but he never lost his memory or speech and he’s still here so we’ll take it.
Oh god poor guy. He is very young but devastating strokes can still happen at a young age. The earlier it is treated (ideally within the first 4 hours) the better the recovery. Ugh this sucks
Yes, the faster they can get a clotbuster like Alteplase into the system, the better.
Oh god, the poor man. I love him on Riverdale and he always seems like such a nice man. He’s so young, too! Will be keeping him and his loved ones in my thoughts.
He was a regular at a restaurant in my old neighborhood in LA. He was always very quiet, not the slightest bit “look at me I used to be kind of a big deal.” Seemed almost shy and, yes, a good guy. Really hope he’s ok, I was so happy to hear of his career resurgence with Riverdale (though I haven’t watched it).
Oh, and Dylan >>>>>>>> Brandon every day of the week. Man, did Dylan McKay make my teenage self swoon back in the day. 😌
unfortunately one is almost never too young to suffer a massive stroke. I had a friend who died of it at the age of 40. No warning signs, no health issues, nothing.
Hope he fully recovers.
I’m part of the “he will always be Dylan McKay” generation, although he worked on so much more. This is really sad and I hope he fully recovers.
Same.
Brandon & Dylan on Tigerbeat, Smash Hits e.t.c 💘💖💕
Me too.
I watch Riverdale with my daughter because “Dylan McKay” is in it.
Love me some Riverdale – he is great on it!
I had a stroke at age 35. It happens.
My twin sister had a minor stroke at 21. I had breast cancer at 28, with no history of it in my family, but went on to have three children in my late 30’s. Life/disease comes when it comes, it doesn’t care about your age or plans. Dylan & Brenda. Get Well Luke.
My sister actually had Bell’s Palsy, which at the time was mistaken for a stroke. She is fine today, as am I. (My own p.s).
Sooo…super-creeper here, Nancy. Don’t be alarmed…I just visit this site a lot!! lol
I think you had twins not too long ago…like Decemberish? And you have a twin sissy?!! That’s sooo cute!! Hope all is well!
Hi Amanduh! I do have a twin. I had two single births young. Then after 35, I had my surprise baby girl….and she was a surprise. Then last summer I lost my brother, not too long after I found out I was pregnant and later with twins (fraternal, boy and a girl born December 21st)! I have quite the action packed life. My younger sister is an Au Par in England. We snatched her up and she is now a Nanny for her sister in Cleveland! It is exciting and tiring and we are all twinning!! No need to creep, post anytime to me!!
Poor Luke. I hope he’s ok and can recover from this.
Unfortunately (as others have pointed out), strokes can happen at a young age. My mom is turning 59 this year and had open heart surgery/bypass a year ago.
This makes me so sad. Good wishes coming his way.
ETA I’ve been hearing a lot about people suffering out-of-the-blue health issues lately and it has me unnerved. You just never know what’s around the corner.
Same here. I’ve known several people who had sudden, life altering (if not life ending) health issues at young ages. And they did the “right” things. There just aren’t any guarantees.
” You just never know what’s around the corner.” In hospice volunteer courses one of the things they truly stress is, tell those you love what you think of them while you still can. It’s a consistent theme in hospice. If you want someone to know, tell them now, because you truly just never know.
I saw a video online of a woman who leaned against a balcony to take a selfie. She overbalanced and fell 24 stories. She was 27 and the mother of three. It was a horrifying video that drove home the, you just don’t know when your time is up theme, so talk, phone, write, record a dvd.
I’m currently helping a senior film herself cooking her grandchildren’s favourite foods so they can do it themselves someday, and so they remember her voice. I asked her to adopt me.
That is so sweet. I wish I had some of my grandmother’s recipes. And your advice is good.
Wow Lady D, I just went through about every emotion in my heart and soul. Thank you for sharing this sad, horrific, hopeful, reminiscent post. Before having my babies in December, I spent so much time with seniors. My husband does elder care law and I became a volunteer. You learn so much from the older and wiser. I particularly love the woman filming herself cooking. Awesome. I wish my grandma would have filmed herself baking her pineapple chiffon pie. We’ve all tried to duplicate without success. Thanks for the post.
oh, to have my grandmother’s voice on a recording- that would be amazing. What a nice thing to do, for both of you!
sending good vibes to him and his family. how scary and devastating. i follow all the riverdale people in instgram and my feed was flood with his picture and good wishes. i know social media is a construct but their admiration for him seems very genuine.
This is such awful news. Fingers crossed for a full recovery for him.
I’m part of the Dylan McKay Stan Club and watch Riverdale. I was so sad to see this news and hope he has a smooth recovery. My father-in-law had a series of undiagnosed small strokes for a couple of months before a bigger one happened last year. He’s still with us and doing okay, but continues to deal with health repercussions.
I had a strange experience hearing about this, because I didn’t find out from a celeb blog, I found out from a wrestling website because Luke’s son, Jack “Jungle Boy” Perry, is involved in AEW (a new wrestling promotion that’s starting up at the moment)
Very weird to read that so many pro wrestlers are tweeting their support for “Jungle Boy’s dad”, who’s not that much older than me…
Ugh… this is heartbreaking! I hope he recovers from this soon. He is my husbands age who coincidentally suffered a stroke last year while traveling on business. My husband was born with a hole in his heart that allowed a small clot to pass through into his brain. Turns out that Many people are born with this condition and dont even know about it! My husband was lucky as he fully recovered and had surgery to fix the hole in his heart. I pray that Luke Perry recovers too.
It will always be Dylan and Brenda forever as far as I’m concerned. Hated that Kelly and he coupled up behind her back! Such betrayal! He and Shannon Dougherty had great chemistry on screen. They smoldered together.
Oh, sigh, this brings back horrible memories of my friend’s husband who had a massive stroke at 48 and passed away. It apparently was brought on by an undiagnosed and inoperable brain tumor. He’d just had a clean physical three days before. In fact he was so healthy he donated so many of his organs that he set a record for the org. Devastating but the organ donation did bring a little comfort to my friend and their kids.
Healing vibes to Luke. I too have fond memories of him from 90210.
Friend of our family had a similar situation, but at an older age. Had a stroke, was recovering from that, and then they discovered a brain tumor. He recently passed away.
He’s young for it, but stroke can happen anytime, anywhere, particularly if you have the genetics that predispose you to atherosclerosis or similar ailments. Stroke recovery is a bear, though. I hope his family supports him well through it.
If it was “massive”, he may very well not be able to resume his career. There are so many factors that determine recovery, but the biggest is time—how much time passed before he got to the ER. The observation time is to see if he’ll respond to treatment… or not.
I wish him well.
That’s my concern as well. I really hope it wasn’t as bad as initially thought, but it really doesn’t sound good.
Dylan and Kelly 4ever! This is so sad. Hope he makes a full recovery.
Yay!! Another Dylan and Kelly fan. I preferred their chemistry.😉 Especially as both their characters were so damaged.
That rich girl Kelly stole him from Brenda! I heard the reason Spelling broke up Dylan and Brenda was that she wasn’t remorseful about losing her virginity. So he puts him with Kelly who was rather experienced! They both lost him to Toni…who died in his arms. The memories. I pray Luke will recover fully. He was married to Minnie ten years and divorced in 2003 and has been single since. That sexy shy guy that sits in the back of class and all the girls dream about. 😪 Never claim a disease….forge ahead and get healthy… Coy Luther “Luke” Perry
Wishing him all the best and, fingers crossed, a full recovery.
Sending love and good thoughts. I had a grand mal seizure two years ago, totally out of the blue. I was “sedated” and “under observation” for about four days (I was on a high dose of Diazepam and remember nothing until the last day), but I came out okay. I am praying it’s the same situation for him. A weird fluke, and he’ll be out in a few days.
My friend just had a stroke and she is only 32. She is recovering rapidly and has nearly full mobility restored. The Dr. told her about 10% of strokes occur in people under the age of 50.
I’m hoping Luke has the same recovery.
Interesting. I was just going to leave a comment asking if he’s a drug user because he seems to young to be dealing with a massive stroke. Also he aged rapidly. His forehead wrinkles are deep so figured he’s a drug user.
A stroke can happen at any age.
“His forehead wrinkles are deep so figured he’s a drug user.”
I… what?
I mean, I have a deep line between my brows and I’m under 30. But I squinted a lot when I was younger and refused to wear my glasses unless I HAD to for quite a while. My grandfather has the same lines in airforce photos when he was in his 20s so there’s a big genetic factor involved. Neither of us are/were drug users. Sun exposure is a big thing with wrinkles… as well as people who have dry leaning skin.
@Hmm: I see you are team Dylan/Brenda 🙂 so you are familiar with him on 90210. He had these wrinkles (of course not that deep) in his mid 20s when he was playing 17 year old Dylan McKay. His forehead wrinkles are basically a running gag, that even Luke himself is joking about.
I never heard anything about him abusing or even using drugs. People of all ages suffer from strokes – even massive ones. It can happen to everyone, even if you live a very healthy lifestyle.
He did work as part of a road crew before 90201 and standing in the sun for hours is going to age you. He doesn’t look that different from when he was in his 20s.
@greenmonster I had an older sister that loved the show. Looking back I’m not sure why we all thought Dylan was hot when hello Brandon was way hotter.but it’s probably because Dylan was the troubled bad boy and he drove a Porsche.
I am very sorry to read this. I hope he will be able to recover well and has a good support network around him.
Dylan and Kelly forever girl here. Had a friend who had a stroke when she was 28. She recovered, somewhat but still doesn’t have full use of her right side. She’s 60 now.
No way. Dylan and Brenda forever. Kelly and Brandon forever.
LoL
Yes and yes!!!
My extremely healthy grandmother died at 59 of a massive hemorrhagic stroke. Genetics and the type of stroke are usually the factors in most strokes in younger people.
My beloved aunt/godmother died of a massive stroke that came out of nowhere when she was a healthy vibrant 50 years old. It happens. Wishing him all the best.
I used to work at a sub-acute rehab facility for stroke victims…
The younger the patient…the more HORRIFIC the injuries….especially the ones from 40-60…
Sigh….
My dad turned 50 and had 3 strokes in 2 years. The last one put him in a wheelchair, unable to speak for the last 20 years of his life. The man who had exactly 2 conversations with me in the entire 17 years we shared a roof, spent the last 20 years of his life unable to say a word.
I’m so sorry.
I hope he’ll try acupuncture. E-stim (electrical stimulation) scalp acupuncture can really make a difference in outcome with strokes.
Not every acupuncturist on the planet is going to be good at this. The way to find one is to look carefully at the acupuncturist’s web site–do they clearly articulate their experience with stroke recovery? If you cannot find someone near you, see if there is an acupuncture school in your vicinity. Truly, if the acupuncturist is trained and knowledgable in stroke recovery then you have a great resource available:
https://www.pacificcollege.edu/news/blog/2015/07/27/can-acupuncture-really-benefit-stroke-recovery
Strokes have nothing to do with age. Anyone at any age can have a stroke. Here’s praying that the TMZ reports are exaggerated and he is doing okay.
I hope for his sake it was a TIA rather than a full on stroke…
My 44 year old husband, who exercised every day and didn’t smoke or drink had a massive stroke ‘out of the blue’. It’s a life changer
Nooooooo! Not Dylan! And I loved, loved, loved him in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
This is shocking and sad. I hope that he gets better!
He was my first true love in Buffy!!
Was going to say “he wasn’t on that show” and then I remembered the movie 😀
I have just been in Japan and found the best T-shirt for a friend. It has a picture of Brenda and Dylan hugging and the caption ‘I slept with Dylan first’. It’s amazing. Really hoping all is good with him and a speedy recovery. Vintage 90210 was the best.
You are never too young for a stroke.
My older sister had several expressive aphasia strokes in the late 1980s – she was in her late 20s.
I remember her trying to tell my mom and I would happen but we couldn’t understand a word she was saying. It was so scary. She regained her use of speech and had to do lots of occupational therapy – when she first started to talk again it was so sad. Luckily in a few weeks her speech was almost 100%.
Aubrey Plaza from Parks and Recreation had an expressive aphasia stroke when she was 20 while attending NYU.
She discussed her experience on Fresh Air.
My friend’s older brother ( A marathoner ) had several strokes in his early 30’s.
I had a stroke at age 43, the day after Election Day, 2016. I legit blamed the election results, my doctor actually didn’t dispute it, saying my ridiculously high blood pressure was exacerbated by the stress and was a major factor. I made a full recovery.
Best wishes for Luke! I hope he is getting great medical care.
Most people don’t realize that sleep apnea is a major factor for strokes. My mother died from untreated sleep apnea which resulted in heart failure and a stroke. My sister has severe sleep apnea and suffered a stroke. Neither one wanted treatment for sleep apnea and unfortunately suffered the consequences.
Strokes can kill. My Prayers for his recovery.
Agreed. Death of brain cells is generally bad for the health
When Jennie Garth got cheated on by that Peter Fettuchini guy, Luke Perry was her date to a bunch of red carpets. He was so sweet to her and deflecting all the invasive questions about her divorce. He seems like a cool dude. Sending love and healing vibes to him.
Nooooooooo!!!💔 I HOPE HE IS OKAY?!
I hope he makes a speedy recovery. I remember watching him as Dylan McKay as a child and I’m pretty sure he heavily influenced my taste in men later in life.
I also watch Riverdale mostly because of him, I really like his character and still have a crush on him.
I saw in the above comments that someone was wondering if he was a drug addict because he has deep lines, especially on his forehead. But he already had them in his twenties ! He has gradually aged but it hasn’t been like Lindsay Lohan who has aged prematurely. Also, we are be so used to 50 year-old celebrities with Botox and fillers who look 10 years longer than they really are…
Anyway, he seems like a nice, quiet guy and I hope he will be back on the show soon !
I hope the reports are being exaggerated. I love him!
Yes.My cousins daughter suffered stroke at age 6-she was in coma wearing nappies and is now learning to speak and walk…everything pretty much as baby(I think that was son brain damage after stroke)
We weren’t actually sure if she will survive so it’s great news she did and we hope because of her young age she will recover quickly…
My grandad suffered stroke in his 70ies and lost all movement on left side of the body, but he was so determined that he learned to speak ,using his hand again and even walk with estic after being not able to walk at all and in wheelchair for year
He was great fighter.
I’ve had 3 TIA’s.
Fortunately other than some balance issues I am doing well
I hope he recovers soon
I loved Dylan. He was my favourite on the show. Hope he has a full recovery.
Luke Perry has died. RIP Dylan.