Jason Priestley broke down remembering his final time directing Luke Perry on “Beverly Hills, 90210.”
Priestley, 55, appeared on the “Best With Them” podcast in June and recalled what he called his “favorite directing moment” from the ’90s teen drama. The actor, who made his directorial debut during Season 3, had taken the helm for Perry’s last episode as Dylan McKay.
“My favorite directing moment? In Luke Perry’s last episode that he ever did, you know, Luke falling to his knees in the rain… we had rain towers everywhere, and Luke was falling to his knees, you know, looking up at the heavens and crying out,” Priestley explained.
The scene captured Perry’s character discovering that his wife, Antonia “Toni” Marchette, had been killed in a drive-by shooting. Priestley remembered filming it as a “big camera on a crane pull[ed] away from him in the rain.”
“Luke and I were just having the best time shooting all of that stuff, and I think back to those kinds of moments a lot now that he’s gone,” Priestley added, choking up on the podcast.
Priestley fell silent when asked whether he missed Perry, tears welling in his eyes. He simply nodded, unable to speak.
Perry died in March 2019 at age 52 after suffering a massive stroke days earlier. The actor had also become beloved by a new generation for his role as Fred Andrews on “Riverdale.”
In the days following Perry’s death, Priestley joined his former castmates in paying tribute, posting an emotional statement on Instagram alongside two photos of himself with Perry.
“It’s taken me a couple of days to figure out how to write this… My dear friend of 29 years, Luke Perry, was one of those truly special people who really cared…” he wrote.
“Luke was not only a star,” Priestley continued in his caption. “He was an incredibly bright light that was extinguished far too soon… and that is why I, and so many others, are in so much pain today…”
“If you had the good fortune to know Luke, or to have ever crossed his path, I know you are sad today as well… the candle that burns twice as bright only burns for half as long… you burned oh, so brightly Luke…”
“Goodnight Sweet Prince,” he concluded.
Priestley had previously opened up about how losing Perry and later Shannen Doherty forced him to confront his own mortality. Doherty died in July 2024 after a years-long battle with cancer.
“It has made me think about my own mortality. I woke up on my 50th birthday and I realized that I’d already lived most of my life,” Priestley said in August 2024.
“Luke’s passing away was totally a shock because there was nothing wrong with him,” he added. “We were neighbors as well as friends and spent a lot of time together. We shared so much.”
In the viral moment that spawned the original headlines, Priestley’s podcast appearance revealed the depth of his grief six years after Perry’s death. The rain-soaked scene he directed — with Perry’s character collapsing in anguish — has become one of the most remembered moments from the series, now doubly poignant as their final collaboration.
Priestley also reflected in the CW documentary “I Am Luke Perry” about receiving the news of his friend’s stroke. Jennie Garth, 52, called him that morning while he was in his kitchen. “Jennie told me that Luke had had a stroke and they were — and he was on his way to the hospital,” he recalled. Though “shocked” and “stunned,” Priestley said he remained hopeful, drawing on his own father’s stroke survival. Perry died one week later.
The cast has remained close through the losses. Priestley said in 2024 that the original dynamics persist when they gather, with him naturally falling into his old role as the “level-headed voice of reason.” The group reunited at ’90s Con in Hartford, Connecticut, though Perry and Doherty’s absences were deeply felt.
Priestley is scheduled to appear at a fan convention in Belgium in April 2025.