Ray Pruit, we hardly knew ye

We at the Blogulator know him best as Donna Martin's abusive boyfriend, Ray Pruit, on Beverly Hills, 90210. However, as it turns out, Jamie Walters has had a much more storied career than that. He acts, he's a musician, really the whole package---so how come, outside the world of Beverly Hills, I don't remember him at all?



Before he was on 90210, he starred in another teen drama as a part of a devil-may-care, rag tag team of budding rock stars called The Heights. According to the IMDb plot summary:

"The Heights: is not only the name of the suburb a group of young adults lives
in, it's also the name of the rock band they've set up. During its 12 episodes,
the show tells partly comedian, partly serious and melancholy about relations,
crises and important events in the lives of the young people. Each shows
features a song of the band."

I'm intrigued! Is this already another cult teen classic that I've somehow completely missed until now?

Remember that song "How Do You Talk to an Angel"? That was HIS SONG!! It was a number one single as well as the theme song for The Heights. It was nominated for an Emmy after The Heights was canceled (after only one season, sadly). Liza Minelli ended up taking home the Emmy, but Jamie got himself a gig that would make him eligible for future spots on VH1 shows that wonder what ever happened to those teen heart throbs.



In addition to playing an aspiring musician on teen soaps, Jamie actually was a musician. I guess that's why he played one so convincingly on 90210 (read into that whatever sarcasm you'd like). However, he would very much like us to remember that while he also played an abusive boyfriend, he is NOT REALLY abusive. He claims that his character change on 90210 hurt his career, since fans couldn't tell where Ray Pruit ended and Jamie Walters began. To be fair, Jamie, you were a real musician playing a musician on TV...it only makes sense that if you're going to play an abuser, you're also really someone with abuse and rage problems. Maybe his complains explain why his character got to appear on later episodes as someone who had gone to therapy to work out his problems, cleaned up his act, and was once again a good guy?

According to a Wikipedia quote (which I can only assume is accurate), he spoke of his role as Ray Pruit saying: "At first he was like this sort of like the underdog he was this guy from the wrong side of the town, who didn't fit in with the Beverly Hills kids but he had his music and he was honest and all this stuff. And then they started twisting him into being like this abusive evil boyfriend. I was like you either have to change the character or you have to let me off the show, because I'm going out and I'm like trying to sell tickets on our tour, and there's like teenage girls out there who think, like they really think I'm an abusive guy you know, and they'd hold up signs saying like 'leave Donna alone' and that's like so not what I wanted" (this quote originally came from his appearance on an MTV one-hit wonders show--see clip below).



Wikipedia also tells me that in 1992 he was engaged to Drew Barrymore...until the next year, when HE broke it off. Chew on that one for a little while.

He apparently now works as an EMT. Quite a switch...and I'm sorry to hear that the music thing didn't work out. At least I've had some "whatever happened to..." questions answered about a favorite 90210 temporary co-star. Thanks for bringing his musical career to my attention, Chris! Now if only I could find out what happened to Emily Valentine...

This entry was posted by Brigitte, on Thursday, August 06, 2009. You can leave your response.