Louis Byron Perryman lived and unfortunately, died in Texas. Born in Cooke County on August 15th, 1941, Lou, a character actor who famously spits and gets skinned alive by Leatherface in the most polarizing Texas Chainsaw Massacre film in the franchise. I’ve touched on my love of the sequel before so I won’t spend any more time defending it. I’ll just say that I can also understand how others might not feel the way I do about it. It is loud. It is batshit. It is goofy. I’m content with all of that.

Today we’re talking about Lou. Why does he spit so much in that film? And who the fuck makes a house out of French fries? Was all that in the script? I don’t know. Whatever.

There is not much information about Lou’s upbringing. We know that he began working in the film industry after he got out of the Army. His first credit was as the Second Unit Director or Assistant Director alongside Tobe Hooper on the 1971 film, Eggshells. I have not seen that movie and have no intention on doing so.

Three years later he would work with Hooper again as an assistant cameraman on the genre defining horror classic, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which celebrates its 50th birthday this year.

Lou was regarded as a pioneer in the Austin film community and had twenty three acting credits to his name, most notable being small roles in The Blues Brothers, Poltergeist, Boys Don’t Cry and the aforementioned Chainsaw sequel.

It’s interesting, although at times sad or unpleasant or both, when life imitates art.

On April 1st, 2009, a 28 year old mentally ill junkie named Seth Christopher Tatum got into an altercation with his mother’s ex-boyfriend. Seth attacked him with a pair of garden shears and an iron fireplace poker while he was in the bathroom. After fracturing the man’s skull Seth fled on foot. It was reported that the two did not get along well, but the incident seemed unprovoked, and there was an attempt to admit Seth into a hospital the night before but his mother could not afford it.

Later that day, just two miles from the attack, Seth happened to meet Lou Perryman. Seth told the police that he was looking to make Lou’s acquaintance in order to steal his car, a 1994 Geo that in my mind has to be the color green. They spoke outside Lou’s house briefly before Lou went back inside his home. Lou was seated at his desk in front of his computer, when Seth who entered through the front door, walked into the room and struck Lou over ten times with an ax. The article in the Austin American-Statesman reports that majority of those were wounds were to the head. Lou must have not felt threatened because it appears the door was unlocked. I never leave any doors unlocked and I check the backseat when I get into my car. Also, did the ax belong to Lou?

Seth fled in the Geo, and the next day turned himself him into the authorities, confessing that car was stolen and that he murdered the owner in the process.

Jennifer Perryman, Lou’s daughter, said her father was researching Sam Houston, the former president of the Republic of Texas, with aspirations of writing a play about him.

The prosecutors did not seek the death penalty, which coincidentally was the wishes of Lou’s daughter, and Seth ultimately received life in prison after pleading guilty. Friends of the southern actor stood in the hallway during the verdict. Lou was regarded as a sweetheart of a man, adored by those who knew him, lauded for his creativity as well as his compassion and support for others.

Lou is certainly missed by friends and fans alike, maybe he’s somewhere building French fry houses and drinking a Lone Star. Keep your doors locked. Don’t make it any easier.