‘Friends’ star Matthew Perry, the Emmy-nominated actor, whose sarcastic, but lovable Chandler Bing was among television’s most famous and most quotable characters, has died at 54.
The actor was found dead of an apparent drowning at his Los Angeles home Saturday, according to the ‘Los Angeles Times’ and celebrity website ‘TMZ’, which was the first to report the news. Both outlets cited unnamed sources confirming Perry’s death.
“Matthew was an incredibly gifted actor and an indelible part of the ‘Warner Bros. Television Group’ family,” the company said. “The impact of his comedic genius was felt around the world and his legacy will live on in the hearts of so many. This is a heartbreaking day and we send our love to his family, his loved ones and all of his devoted fans.”
Perry’s publicists and other representatives didn’t immediately respond to messages from ‘The Associated Press’ seeking comment.
Asked to confirm police response to what was listed as Perry’s home address, LAPD Officer Drake Madison told the AP that officers had gone to that block ‘for a death investigation of a male in his 50s’.
Perry’s 10 seasons on ‘Friends’ made him one of Hollywood’s most recognisable actors, starring opposite Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow and David Schwimmer as a friend group in New York. As Chandler, he played the quick-witted, insecure and neurotic roommate of LeBlanc’s Joey and a close friend of Schwimmer’s Ross. During the show’s hijinks, he could be counted on to chime in with a line like, “Could this be any more awkward?” or another well-timed quip.
Perry was open about his long and public struggle with addiction, writing at the beginning of his 2022 million-selling memoir: “Hi, my name is Matthew, although you may know me by another name. My friends call me Matty. And I should be dead.”
‘Friends’ ran from 1994 until 2004, winning one best comedy series Emmy Award in 2002. The cast notably banded together for later seasons to obtain a salary of one million dollars per episode for each.
Some of his ‘Friends’ costars paid tribute on social media, posting photos, GIFS and bloopers from their favourite episodes.
“What a loss,” actor Maggie Wheeler, who played his girlfriend, Janice, wrote on ‘Instagram’. “The joy you brought to so many in your too-short lifetime will live on. I feel very blessed by every creative moment we shared.”
Actress Morgan Fairchild, who played his mother on the show, said the loss of a ‘brilliant young actor’ was a shock. “I’m heartbroken about the untimely death of my ‘son’,” she wrote on ‘X’.
By the ‘Friends’ finale, Chandler is married to Cox’s Monica and they have a family, reflecting the journey of the core cast from single New Yorkers trying to figure their lives out to several of them married and starting families. The series was one of television’s biggest hits and has taken on a new life - and found surprising popularity with younger fans - in recent years on streaming services.
Perry described reading the ‘Friends’ script for the first time in his memoir, ‘Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing’. “It was as if someone had followed me around for a year, stealing my jokes, copying my mannerisms, photocopying my world-weary yet witty view of life. One character in particular stood out to me: it wasn’t that I thought I could ‘play’ Chandler. I ‘was’ Chandler.”
Unknown at the time was the struggle Perry had with addiction and an intense desire to please audiences. “ ‘Friends’ was huge. I couldn’t jeopardise that. I loved the script. I loved my co-actors. I loved the scripts. I loved everything about the show, but I was struggling with my addictions which only added to my sense of shame,” he wrote in his memoir. “I had a secret and no one could know.”
An ‘HBO Max’ reunion special in 2021 was hosted by James Corden and fed into huge interest in seeing the cast together again, although the program consisted of the actors discussing the show and was not a continuation of their characters’ storylines.
Perry received one Emmy nomination for his ‘Friends’ role and two more for appearances as an associate White House counsel on ‘The West Wing’. He also had several notable film roles, starring opposite Salma Hayek in the rom-com ‘Fools Rush In’ and Bruce Willis in the crime comedy ‘The Whole Nine Yards’. He worked consistently after ‘Friends’, though never in a role that brought him as much attention or acclaim.
In 2015, he played Oscar for a CBS reboot of ‘The Odd Couple’ that aired for two seasons. He told the AP that playing Oscar Madison, the character originally made famous in the 1960s series by Walter Matthau, was a ‘dream role’. He also said he was surprised at how much he enjoyed being filmed again in front of a live audience.
Perry was born on August 19, 1969, in Williamstown, Massachusetts. His father is actor John Bennett Perry and his mother, Suzanne, served as press secretary of Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and is married to ‘Dateline’ correspondent Keith Morrison.