You may not know this, but Michael Cudlitz built the popular ’90s teen drama with his own two hands… literally. Though he’s always been an actor, he used the construction and carpentry skills his father taught him to pay his way through college at California Institute of the Arts and later parlayed those talents into the role of construction coordinator on the original "90210".

And he recalls that after he appeared in the 1992 film A River Runs Through It, the show’s casting department realized what an untapped resource it had working in its woodshop.




His first episode was Season 2’s steroid-heavy 'A Competitive Edge'.

“They were having trouble finding young guys who were big in size,” Cudlitz says, chuckling. “Not necessarily crazy muscular, but just big, intimidating guys that looked young… compared with our guys, who were not necessarily in high school.”




Cudlitz wound up appearing in 9 more episodes, including one where his character, Tony, accompanied Shannen Doherty’s Brenda Walsh to the senior prom.

“The kicker to the entire thing is,” he notes, “is that 20-something years later, I’m doing The Kids Are Alright, and we are shooting in the same production facility I built for Beverly Hills, 90210!”

https://tvline.com/gallery/michael-cudlitz-photos-the-walking-dead-lost-southland/#!2/cudlitz-90210-guys/