“Risky Business,” “Beverly Hills, 90210” actor was 89 years old

Nicholas Pryor, the busy character actor who played Tom Cruise's father Risky business and Kathleen Robertson's father Beverly Hills, 90210 during a career that spanned seven decades, has died. He was 89.

Pryor died of cancer Monday at his home in Wilmington, North Carolina, said his wife, actress Christine Belford The Hollywood Reporter.

In a note to be delivered to THR After his death, he wrote: “Nicholas Pryor was enormously grateful to have been a working actor for nearly 70 years.”

From 1997 to 2002, Pryor played former spy Victor Collins on the series General Hospital Spin off Port Charleswhich was the culmination of a long career in daytime soap operas that included stints on the series The Secret Storm, The edge of the night, Love is a great thing, All my children And Another world.

Pryor returned to Fox Beverly Hills, 90210 as A. Milton Arnold, chancellor of California University and father of Robertson's Claire Arnold, from 1994 to 1997. And he was the father of Paula Devicq's character Kirsten Bennett on another Fox series. Group of five.

He previously played Assistant Director Jack Feldspar in the 1987–88 NBC drama series The Bronx Zoocreated by Gary David Goldberg and starring Edward Asner.

On the big screen, Pryor was Barbara Feldon's unhappy husband in Michael Ritchie's film Smile (1975); the pipe-smoking college professor who drives into Charles Bail's in an AC Cobra with Michael Sarrazin The Gumball Rally (1976); the museum director who meets his end in a train station area Damien: Omen II (1978); and the father of Robert Downey Jr.'s drug addict Julian Less than zero (1987).

Nicholas David Probst was born on January 28, 1935 in Baltimore. His father, Stanley, worked in the pharmaceutical industry.

While attending the all-boys Gilman School in Baltimore and Yale University, Pryor honed his acting skills on stage at the Drummond Players in Baltimore, the Camden Hills Theater in Maine, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and the Star Theater in Minneapolis.

After graduating from college in 1956, the lanky Pryor appeared in four Broadway plays in 1957-59: with Karl Malden in The Eggheadwith Joan Bennett in Love me a littlewith Leon Ames in Howie and with Diana Douglas in The tallest tree. However, the four lasted a total of 56 performances.

He made his first soap appearances in 1958 The brighter day and in 1959 Young Dr. Malone. In 1964 he moved to NBC Another world as an original cast member, but his character, Tom Baxter, was killed off six months later. He was then hired for a CBS primetime soap. The nurses.

Pryor was celebrated in his film debut as a man in the middle of a midlife crisis. The way we live now (1970), and he followed with Turns in Man on a swing (1974), The lucky whore (1975), The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh (1979) and Airplane! (1980).

He returned to Broadway in replacement roles in the 1970s This championship season And thieves.

In addition to his Porsche 928 being destroyed by Cruise's Joel Goodsen Risky business (1983), Pryor also appeared The Falcon and the Snowman (1985), Morgan Stewart's Coming Home (1987), Pacific highs (1990), Hoffa (1992), splinters (1993), Hail Caesar (1994), The chamber (1996), Molly (1999), Collateral damage (2002), The list (2007), The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 (2014), Doctor Sleep (2019) and Halloween Kills (2021).

And with more than 170 acting credits on IMDb, he has appeared in dozens of shows on television Alfred Hitchcock presents, Eight is enough, MASH And Little house on the prairie To Dallas, St. Elsewhere, LA Law, The West Wing And NYPD Blueand in the miniseries The Adams Chronicles, Washington: Behind Closed Doors And East of Eden.

He and Belford, his fourth wife, married in July 1993 and they continued to work together Beverly Hills, 90210. He is also survived by his daughter Stacey and his grandchildren Auguste and Avril.