Some terrible, fucked up news. Lou Perryman, who played Stretch’s faithful hick sidekick L.G. in TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE PART 2 died Thursday, murdered by some random scumbag. I feel a little weird because he died under such horrible circumstances and I only know who he is because of the spectacular way he was killed in the movie. But he wasn’t a horror guy – he just ended up in that one and POLTERGEIST because he worked with Tobe Hooper (he was assistant cameraman on the original TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE).
I actually met Perryman just last year at a small horror convention. I don’t usually go to those type of things but this one lured me in with the promise of “Rowdy” Roddy Piper and three of the stars of CHAINSAW 2. And you know how obsessed I am with that movie. I’ve mentioned before that I don’t really like talking to my movie heroes, because I don’t want to try to be the guy who comes up with the one really interesting question or cool thing to say. Usually it’s a hopeless endeavor. But I did actually talk to Lou Perryman for a minute and told him I was a big fan of Chainsaw 2. He was polite. Then I mentioned that I had seen him in this excellent low budget independent Austin movie called LAST NIGHT AT THE ALAMO. I wasn’t trying to show off or anything but I really liked the movie, and clearly so did he. His eyes lit up instantly, he offered his hand and asked “What is your name?” He talked enthusiastically about a DVD release of the other movie he did with the same director, THE WHOLE SHOOTIN’ MATCH, which is now available. (I haven’t seen it yet, but Roger Ebert says it’s great, an endorsement Perryman was happy to repeat.)
So it was just a brief encounter, but he seemed like a really nice guy and a funny good ol’ boy just like he played in movies, mostly obscure independent Texas stuff but occasionally something like BOYS DON’T CRY. (And apparently he’s “man in bar” in THE BLUES BROTHERS, but I haven’t found him in there yet.)
It’s too fuckin bad, man. I hate it when shit like this happens. Sorry Lou, it shouldn’t have happened like that. You will be missed.
April 17th, 2009 at 12:13 am
Hey Vern, did you see the interview the Onion AV Club re-printed in honor of Lou Perryman? I know the AV Club is basically a hipster EW, but the interview was hot shit and gives a good glimpse of how awesome Perryman was.