Tom Perry

***Spoiler warning:** Plot and character fates will be shown on this page and in infoboxes and quotes.*

## Relationship Information

### Family members

* Mrs. Perry  (wife)
* Neil Perry  (son)

## Actor/Actress

### Portrayed by

Kurtwood Smith

"*Don't you ever dispute me in public. Do you understand? After you've finished medical school and you're on your own, then you can do as you damn well please. But until then, you do as I tell you. Is that clear?*"
— Tom Perry

**Thomas 'Tom' Perry** also know as **Mr. Perry** is the father of Neil Perry and husband of Mrs. Perry. He is the film’s secondary antagonist indirectly causing the death of his son **Neil Perry** and the firing of John Keating.

## Biography

From the beginning of the film, Mr. Perry tries to control Neil’s actions, outlining for him what he can and cannot do during his time in Welton. Mr. Perry forces him to drop from the Annual, which Neil was excited to be the assistant editor for.

He is absent for a large portion of the movie, only returning when he learns of Neil’s defiance through Mr. John Keating's unconventional teaching methods. He yells at Neil in his room and immediately challenged Keating's influence, whilst threatening him that he must resign from *A Midsummer’s Dream*. Neil refuses, doing it behind his father’s back anyway. His father learns this after going to see the show, and publicly humiliates Neil in front of his friends and Mr. Keating.

Mr. Perry later tells Neil he is sending him to military school, then Harvard, and then medical school to become a doctor. Neil tries to stickup for his English teacher Mr. John Keating, but finds himself unable to. His father shuts him down and he won the challenge of Keating's influence before going to bed for the night, unaware Neil would commit suicide shortly after this altercation.

After Neil took his own life, Mr. Perry request an investigation to find out who is the leader of the secret group. Mr. Perry (alongside Richard Cameron) assisted headmaster Gale Nolan on succeeded forcing Todd Anderson and the other boys to signing the confession letter stating that Mr. Keating was responsible for both his son Neil Perry's defiance and encouraged him, his best friend/roommate Todd Anderson and the other boys to restarting the Dead Poets Society to engage in undisputed behavior.

Mr. Perry also has one of the worst receding hairlines known to man. It's been believed that this was caused by his overwhelm of OCD. But nonetheless, he was still hard to his son and by committed perjury on Neil Perry's English teacher Mr. John Keating. He and his wife divorced after his son's suicide as well he is now imprisoned for peer pressuring to his now deceased son and falsely informing Headmaster Gale Nolan what Mr. John Keating encouraged Neil Perry to pursue. He kept saying that she wanted Neil to become a doctor, when it was in fact Mr. Perry's dream.

## Personality

Mr. Perry is very dumb and stupid. He does likes having control over situations, and hates being rebelled against. He claims to be controlling because he has Neil’s best interests at heart. He is also unredeemable since he did not redeem himself even after his son's death, instead he blamed John Keating for it, even though it obviously wasn't his fault.

He frequently discourages Neil from following his ambitions. He forces Neil to leave the yearbook to focus more on his studies. He also yells at Neil when he performs in the play. This makes him come off as threatening when he tells Neil he will force him to go to a different school.

The reason why Mr. Perry acts this way is because he is giving Neil opportunities he did not get to have as a young man, and believes that Neil will waste them if not properly directed. He does not realize the stress and anxiety this is causing his son, and sees it as only tough love. Mr. Perry does care about Neil, which is evident through how violently he reacts to Neil’s death. If he did not care for Neil, he would not have gone through all the effort to eliminate all responsible parties.

## Relationships

### Neil Perry

Neil is Mr. Perry’s son. They do not have a great relationship with Mr. Perry’s oppressive personality constantly hindering Neil from what he wants to do. He does not express much pride in his son, seeming to use him as tool to vicariously live through. Mr. Perry feels he can decide Neil’s entire future which further strains their relationship.

When Neil commits suicide, Mr. Perry still does not reconsider his actions. He shows that he does care about Neil, wanting immediate answers as to why he died. However, he refuses to think that his own actions have consequences instead he (alongside Richard Cameron) believing that it was Mr. John Keating's unconventional teaching methods encouraged Neil to pursue a career in acting and assists Headmaster Gale Nolan succeed get Todd Anderson and other boys to confess what Mr. Keating taught them to engaged in undisputed behavior.

### Mrs. Perry

Mr. Perry also seems to have a strained relationship with his wife. It appears that she has also fallen to Mr. Perry’s oppression. She wants to defend Neil against his father, but just can’t find the strength to do so.

### John Keating

Mr. Perry falsely accused John Keating for the death of his son. He told headmaster Gale Nolan that John Keating has influencing his son Neil Perry to defying his orders with his unconventional lessons and reporting Todd Anderson, Knox Overstreet, Steven Meeks and Gerard Pitts to Nolan's office where he, headmaster Nolan and each of the boy's parents impatiently waiting for them to be interrogates about the DPS and signed the confession to get Mr. John Keating fired.

## Trivia

* Mr. Perry finding Neil’s body was most likely emphasized with slow motion for impact. The fact the slow motion is on Mr. Perry might also allude to how much he cares about Neil, because the world figuratively and literally slowed down for that moment.