Yellowstone star reveals Luke Perry's act of kindness after Hollywood branded him 'religious nut bag' for refusing to kiss co-star

Yellowstone alumnus Neal McDonough has revealed the generosity he received from Luke Perry when his fortunes were at a low ebb.

McDonough has acted on such shows as Justified, Arrow, Tulsa King and Desperate Housewives as well as in films like Captain America: The First Avenger.

However he has now alleged that at one point in his career, he was fired from a series because he refused to kiss a female co-star.

His reason for doing so was his devotion to his wife Ruve, whom he has been married to since 2003 and with whom he now shares five children.

In his telling, he was regarded as an un-hirable 'religious nut bag' and was so distraught over the damage to his career that he sought comfort in the bottle.

As a result he 'lost the house, lost the cars, lost everything' - leading his old friend Perry to leap to his rescue, he told Page Six.

After McDonough and his family lost their house, Perry welcomed them into his home and allowed them to live there while they attempted to get back on their feet.

McDonough laid bare the self-destructive downturn he spiraled into after his no-kissing policy led him to allegedly be jettisoned from a TV series he left unnamed.

'What time is the bar open? That was generally my thought process back then. It was, you know, fired from a show because I wouldn’t kiss a woman,' he said. 

'No one would hire me because they thought I was this religious nut bag, which is that I love my wife so much. And no one can understand it, no one could understand it.'

Up until that point, he had enjoyed a respectable run in showbiz, voicing the title role on the 1990s TV cartoon The Incredible Hulk and landing projects such as Steven Spielberg's 2001 miniseries Band of Brothers and 2002 film Minority Report.

Although he had 'always' been a 'drinker,' his fondness for alcohol 'became a bad problem' after his career nosedived, and the habit eventually escalated to the point of costing him his house.

Into the breach stepped Perry, who shot to fame on Beverly Hills, 90210 in the 1990s and died in 2019 of a stroke at the age of just 52.

At the time when Perry allowed McDonough to move into his house, the latter was beginning his 13-episode arc on the Western crime drama Justified in 2012.

'Justified was just coming out, but I still didn’t think I was worth anything because I failed to my family. I failed Ruve, my five kids, that I lost our house,' he said.

'I lost all the beautiful things that were the shiny widgets that I had accumulated, were all taken away from me. And that crucifixion caused me so much inner pain because I made it all about me. How could I let the team down?'

His wife ultimately 'grabbed me and says, it’s us or the bottle, you choose,' whereupon he quit drinking and 'never looked back.'

He was able to wrench himself out of his low point by dedicating his life to the service of God 'rather than serving me,' he explained.

McDonough's work since then has included Yellowstone and Tulsa King, as well as shots on shows like CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Suits, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Van Helsing, American Horror Story and 9-1-1: Lone Star.

His upcoming projects include the Jimmy Stewart biopic Jimmy, starring KJ Apa as the title character and McDonough as his father Alexander.

McDonough, who met Ruve Robertson in 2000 and began dating her in 2001, raved about his relationship with his wife of nearly a quarter-century.

'It’s just a cold, hard fact that God gave me an amazing, incredible, most amazing woman that I’ve ever met,' he rhapsodized.

'I can talk forever about it, but she’s my good luck charm, and she got through me hell, and now here I am, in a fantastic place in life that we’re producing movies together. And I can’t tell you how amazing that feels.'