Hollywood has lost a father figure.
Nicholas Pryor—the actor known for playing Tom Cruise‘s dad in Risky Business, Robert Downey Jr.‘s estranged father in Less Than Zero and the parent of Kathleen Robertson in Beverly Hills, 90210—died of cancer Oct. 7 at his North Carolina home, his wife Christine Belford told The Hollywood Reporter. He was 89.
In a handwritten note posthumously delivered to the outlet, Pryor wrote that he was “enormously grateful to have been, for nearly 70 years, a working actor.”
Indeed, Pryor’s onscreen career spanned back decades, with the actor starting out in the ’70s with roles on Smile and The Gumball Rally.
He went on to appear in ’80s hits such as Airplane!, Risky Business and Less Than Zero, before landing a recurring role on Beverly Hills, 90210 from 1994 to 1997.
As a character actor, Pryor worked on many soap operas, including The Secret Storm, The Edge of Night, Love Is a Many Splendored Thing, All My Children and Another World. However, his most notable soap role was Victor Collins on the General Hospital spinoff Port Charles, which he played from 1997 to 2002.
In the wake of Pryor’s death, his onscreen son Jon Lindstrom described him as an “actor’s actor” and an “exceptional friend.”