Jason Priestley Biography
Born: August 28, 1969
The son of a Canadian actress, Jason Priestley began his own career as a child actor in TV commercials. After dropping out of acting in his teens to concentrate on high-school sports, Priestley got back in the professional swim following graduation, accepting one-shot roles on such Canada-based TV series as 21_Jump_Street. The young actor's first American TV assignment was the regular role of teen orphan Todd Mahaffey on the 1989 sitcom Sister Kate. Producer Aaron_Spelling's daughter Tori spotted Priestley on Sister Kate and suggested that her father audition him for a role in the upcoming Fox series Beverly_Hills_90210. Priestley was cast as Brandon Walsh, twin brother of the estimable Brenda (Shannen_Doherty).
Like many of his young series co-stars, Priestley was intent on laying the groundwork for life after 90210. Though his first major film role in Penny_Marshall's Calendar_Girl (1993) came and went without fanfare, he enjoyed some success as a 90210 director. Priestley encountered further success and even critical vindication with his turn as Ronnie Bostock, the B-movie hunk who steals John_Hurt's heart in Love and Death on Long Island (1997). Critics warmed to Priestley's performance, noting that his days of idolatry had given him overly adequate preparation for his portrayal. Unlike other teen idols who rue the day when the fan mail will cease, Priestley once claimed he was happy that his idoldom seems to be on a downward slide: "It's like having a big cancerous lesion on your shoulder. Because people are fickle, man." On March 28, 2000, Priestley was undoubtedly happy that the limelight's glare had dimmed: Arrested for drunken driving after crashing his car into some trash cans, he was sentenced to five days in a Los Angeles jail. Hal Erickson, Rovi
Browse More Actors:
