Morning Man Classic: Perry King!

Dreamboat television and film actor Perry King is was a real heartthrob in the 80s when he was one of the stars of NBC’s Riptide.

Today Is his 76th birthday!

Perry made his film debut in the 1972 feature Slaughterhouse Five but lost out on the role of Hans Solo in Star Wars three years later to Harrison Ford.

His other feature credits included The Lords of Flatbush with Sylvester Stallone and Henry Winkler, Lipstick with Margaux Hemingway and a very controversial movie for its time: A Different Story which cast him as a gay man best friends with a lesbian played by Meg Foster.

He made scores of TV movies including Inmates: A Love Story opposite Kate Jackson; The Hasty Heart for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and the highly-rated miniseries I’ll Take Manhattan.

Post-Riptide, he had a recurring role on Melrose Place and played a patriarch of a very rich and very dysfunctional family in the NBC primetime soap Titans which also starred Victoria Principal, John Barrowman and Yasmine Bleeth, among others.

His most recent TV credits include guest spots on Big Love, The Mentalist and Drop Dead Diva.