Already in his mid-twenties when he shot to stardom playing a James Dean-type high-school rebel on Beverly Hills, 90210, Perry has, like most of the series' costars, tried his best to shed his teen-idol image. Cute and brooding, the actor pursued a big-screen career and even took a two-season hiatus from 90210 in order to appear in a succession of big-screen projects, such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Lifebreath, as well as an impressive turn as a bull-riding champion in 8 Seconds. Perry eventually returned to the small screen, reprising his 90210 role until the series went off the air in 2000, and subsequently tackled a variety of parts on cable shows (a corrupt televangelist on Oz, a postapocalyptic survivor on Jeremiah) and on stage. In 2006 he returned to network TV with the ensemble drama Windfall, in the decidedly mature role of an unhappily married lottery winner, and in 2007 he joined the cast of the one-season HBO cult hit John From Cincinnati. Not bad for an actor who used to keep a tally of all of his acting rejections---216 in all---before finally striking it big.