Why Luke Perry Travelled With Balloons

As the world mourns the loss of Luke Perry, there are plenty of stories emerging.  One in particular really hit me today.  Luke was always the epitome of  cool.  From the characters he played on the big screen to his off-screen personality, the dude was cool.

The story comes from Colin Hanks, star of Fargo and many movies.  He’s also Tom Hanks’ son, if that helps.  Colin was on a flight sitting near screaming kids.  We’ve all been on those flights…when the kid just won’t stop crying.  Basically, the kids cried for hours and the parents couldn’t get the children to settle down.  Towards the end of the flight a guy with a hat on walked up with an inflated balloon and handed it to the kids.  Wouldn’t you know, it worked!  Peace and quiet for the remainder of the flight.

After getting off the plane, Colin’s wife noticed it was Luke Perry.  They went up and made small talk and Colin complimented him on the pro move with the balloon.  Luke said he always travelled with balloons, in case that ever happened.

From now on I will always carry a few balloons with me.  Thanks, Luke Perry!  Rest easy, brother.

Here’s the story in Colin’s words:

 

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I only met him once but the story is too good not tell given todays sad events. My wife and I are on a plane back from Mexico. Couple of rows ahead of us, these two brothers, young kids, are beating the hell out of eachother. Their poor parents are powerless to stop the crying, yelling and screaming. If you’re a parent you understand. Sometimes there’s nothing you can do. It was like this for close to two hours. Then about 10 minutes before landing it starts to get real bad. Out of no where, a man comes from first class. Hat, beard, sunglasses, blowing up a balloon. He ties it off, hands it off like he’s holding out a sword to a king. Kneeling, Head down, arms up. Kids calm down in milliseconds. Plane damn near bursts into applause. 15 minutes longer and it probably would have started WWIII, but we landed before that could happen. We get off the plane, are waiting on line in customs. Finally get a good look at the guy and I say to my wife “Holy shit. I think that balloon man/hero” is Luke Perry”. As luck would have it we end up standing next to each other. Out of the blue he turns to me and says some kind words about Fargo, which kinda blew my mind. I start singing his praises about how long I’ve admired him and also about the move with the balloon. “That’s a pro move! You can’t teach that!” I say. He tells me he always flies with a couple of balloons for that very reason, to give to screaming kids. Don’t know if that’s true, but have no reason to believe it wasn’t. Guy seemed like a true gent. Gone way too damn soon. Also, I’ll be damned if I don’t start traveling with some spare balloons 🎈🎈🎈 #promove #rip #lukeperry #truegent

A post shared by Colin Hanks (@colinhanks) on Mar 4, 2019 at 6:34pm PST