‘Friends’ star Matthew Perry found dead at 54 in LA home
Actor Matthew Perry, who gained fame as the wise-cracking Chandler Bing in the hit US television comedy “Friends,” was found dead on Saturday at a Los Angeles-area home, several news outlets reported.
The American-Canadian star was discovered unresponsive around 4 p.m. local time on Saturday in a hot tub or jacuzzi at his Los Angeles home, the Los Angeles Times, TMZ.com , and ABC News reported, citing anonymous law enforcement sources. Investigations are ongoing, with the cause of death yet to be deter-mined. There were no signs of foul play.
NBC, which broadcast ‘Friends’ for 10 years, confirmed his demise in a statement on social media platform X.
NBC News, citing an unnamed representative for the American-Canadian actor and a law enforcement source, reported the actor was found dead of an apparent drowning at his home in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles.
Perry was best known for his longtime role as Chandler in the hugely successful “Friends,” which ran for 10 seasons on the NBC network from 1994 to 2004, co-starring Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc, and Lisa Kudrow.
The series made international celebrities out of all six castmates. They played a close-knit group of young adults who shared space in one another’s apartments and met for coffee at the “Central Perk,” a fictional Manhattan cafe.
One of the major story lines involved a clandestine romance between Chandler and Monica Geller, the character played by Cox, which the four other friends — Rachel, Joey, Phoebe, and Ross — each discovered one by one.
The entire cast came back together 17 years after the series finale for a much-ballyhooed reunion special that aired on HBO Max in 2021.
In the midst of the show’s original run, Perry was widely reported to have sought treatment for prescription drug and alcohol abuse in 1997 and 2001.
Following “Friends,” Perry went on to star in a least three more network television ventures that proved short-lived — “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” “Mr. Sunshine,” and “Go On.”
He also logged guest appearances or recurring roles in other hit TV shows, including “The West Wing,” “Ally McBeal,” “Scrubs” and “Beverly Hills, 90210.” His motion picture credits included “Fools Rush In,” “The Whole Nine Yards,” “Almost Heroes” and “Three to Tango.”
Perry was a top-ranking junior tennis player and at the age of 15, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting and improvisational comedy.
Perry began his acting career in Los Angeles during his early teens. It wasn’t long before he found enduring fame after being cast as main character Chandler Bing in the popular sitcom “Friends” at the age of 24. It was during the decade-long run of the hit NBC show that he became a household name.
Perry was born in Massachusett on August 19, 1969, the son of actor John Bennett Perry and Canadian journalist Suzanne Marie Langford, who had once served as a press secretary to former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. His mother, a Canadian journalist, divorced Perry’s father and married a Canadian broadcast personality
His parents divorced before his first birthday and Perry spent most of his early years in Ottawa, where he attended the same school as Justin Trudeau — Canada’s current Prime Minister and the first son of Pierre. Perry often joked about having once been in a brawl with the future leader of Canada when they were children.
His parents’ separation left a lasting trauma on the actor, and wealth and recognition compounded it. Perry struggled for years with alcohol and drug addictions, which he recounted in a frank 2022 memoir, “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing.”
“I figured being famous would fill the great hole that was endlessly growing inside of me,” he wrote.
Perry estimated he spent $9 million on efforts to become sober, and took up to 55 Vicodin pills — a painkiller — a day at the height of his addiction. He suffered a health scare a few years ago when his colon ruptured from an opioid overdose and he had to be re-suscitated after his heart stopped, a procedure that required breaking eight of his ribs. The near-death experience ultimately led to him pulling out of “Don’t Look Up,” a film he was set to star in with actress Meryl Streep.
“My life has had so many highs and so many lows that I felt that it really was time to help people, he said in an interview last year on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert about his reasons for writing his book. “The lower the scale I go, the more helpful I can be to other people that have gone so low.”
Outpouring of grief
The news brought an outpouring of grief from fellow celebrities and other high-profile personalities.
Actor Mira Sorvino said on X: “Oh no!!! Matthew Perry!! You sweet, troubled soul!! May you find and happiness in Heaven, making everyone laugh with your singular wit!!!”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who was a former schoolmate of Perry’s in Ottawa, described the latter’ss passing as “shocking and saddening.”
“I’ll never forget the schoolyard games we used to play, and I know people around the world are never going to forget the joy he brought them,” Trudeau said on X. “Thanks for all the laughs, Matthew. You were loved — and you will be missed.”
“We are incredibly saddened by the too-soon passing of Matthew Perry,” NBC Entertainment said. “He brought so much joy to hundreds of millions of people around the world with his pitch perfect comedic timing and wry wit. His legacy will live on through countless generations.”
Perry’s last post on Instagram, on October 23, included a photograph of him sitting by a pool or jacuzzi at night, with the words: “Oh, so warm water swirling around makes you feel good? I’m Mattman.”
