Brian Austin Green

Though a busy actor on television for more than three decades, actor Brian Austin Green was best known as aspiring musician David Silver on "Beverly Hills 90210" (Fox, 1990-2000). Born Brian Green in Los Angeles, California, he developed an interest in music and performing after accompanying his father, musician George Green, to various live dates. He decided to try his hand at acting while still in grade school, and made his television debut in a PBS production of "The Canterville Ghost" (1985) with Richard Kiley. The following year, Green began a three-year run as Donna Mills' son on "Knots Landing" (CBS, 1979-1993) while also logging appearances in various family-friendly television series, including "Highway to Heaven" (NBC, 1984-1989) and "Good Morning, Miss Bliss" (Disney Channel, 1988-1989), which was later reworked by the network into "Saved By the Bell" (NBC, 1989-1993). After adopting "Austin" as part of his screen moniker to differentiate from another Brian Green in the Screen Actors Guild, Green landed the role that would make him famous: social climber and DJ/musician David Silver on "Beverly Hills 90210." Though the widespread popularity of the series thrust Green into the spotlight, he did not enjoy the same level of fandom as leads Luke Perry and Jason Priestley, and busied himself with fashioning a music career while also contributing voice-acting performances to various animated series, including Marvel's "Fantastic Four" (syndicated, 1994-96). In 1996, he released his first, and to date, only hip-hop album, One Stop Carnival, which was met with withering reviews. Undaunted, Green focused his energies on acting, and worked steadily in the years leading up to and after "90210" aired its final episode in 2000. Television remained his primary showcase through guest roles on "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" (CBS, 2000-2015) and other primetime series; there were also brief forays into regular series work on the British series "Stacey Stone" (2001-03), "Freddie" (ABC, 2005-2006), a short-lived vehicle for actor Freddie Prinze, Jr., and the much-anticipated but quickly dismissed "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" (Fox, 2008-09). During this period, he drew more notices for his on-again, off-again relationship with actress Megan Fox, though his directorial debut with the short "Fish Without a Bicycle" (2003) won awards at several film festivals. Guest roles continued to dominate his screen time at the end of the millennium's first decade, including recurring roles as the DC Comics villain Metallo on "Smallville" (The WB/CW, 2001-2011) and as Marcia Cross's love interest on "Desperate Housewives" (ABC, 2003-2012). There was also series regular work during this period, including "Anger Management" (FX, 2012-14) and "Wedding Band" (TBS, 2012-13), though again, both proved short-lived. He reunited with his "90210" co-stars - sadly without Luke Perry, who died after a stroke in 2019 - for "BH90210," which spoofed both the original series and its stars, who adopted fictionalized personas for comic effect. Green, who had fathered three children with Fox and a son with actress Vanessa Marcil, was portrayed as a stay-at-home dad on the series, which ended after a single season on Fox.