Joe Seer / Shutterstock.com
March 8, 2019
Jill Filipovic wrote for CNN about the death of actor Luke Perry and its effects on his fans.
Luke Perry, a talented actor and a generation-crossing heartthrob, died Monday. And as these things usually go, there is a great outpouring of grief across the media -- especially social media. Here, the reaction to his death is tinged with a particular kind of discomfort.
Perry was just 52, not much older than those fans who watched his '90s breakout show, "Beverly Hills, 90210," in their teens and early 20s. Despite his bad boy persona, Perry didn't die from driving too fast or overdosing on drugs or living too hard. He just -- died, as so many humans do, from a seemingly indiscriminate failure of the body. A massive stroke, his publicist said.
For Perry's older fans, his death is a reminder of a youth that is receding in the rearview mirror, even as mortality is approaching way too fast.