Matthew Perry’s stepfather, Canadian broadcaster Keith Morrison, has broken his month-long social media silence to honour the late Friends star.
The actor, who shot to fame starring as the wise-cracking jokester Chandler Bing on the hit NBC sitcom, was found dead at his Los Angeles home last month. He was 54.
On Monday (27 November), a month after Perry’s tragic death, 76-year-old Dateline correspondent Morrison tweeted asking for donations to The Matthew Perry Foundation in celebration of Giving Tuesday.
“This is not the sort of thing I commonly do, this pitch. But this year is different,” Morrison wrote. “And tomorrow is Giving Tuesday. Do what you can; he would have been grateful.”
Morrison has been married to Perry’s mother Suzanne since 1981. Suzanne was previously married to Perry’s biological father, actor John Bennett Perry, from 1968 to 1970. The 17 Again actor was Suzanne and John’s only child together. Perry has five half-siblings from Suzanne and John’s other marriages.
The Matthew Perry Foundation was established by The National Philanthropic Trust after the star’s death. Its mission is to help “others struggling with the disease of addiction”, the website states. “It will honor his legacy and be guided by his own words and experiences and driven by his passion for making a difference in as many lives as possible.”
Perry had been vocal about his battle with addiction, candidly opening up about his journey towards sobriety in his 2022 memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing.
His cause of death remains “deferred” after an initial postmortem showed no signs of meth or fentanyl in his system.
Following Perry’s death, Friends creator Marta Kauffman confirmed that he was sober. “He seemed better than I had seen in a while. I was so thrilled to see that. He was emotionally in a good place, he looked good, he quit smoking,” she told TODAY show’s Hoda Kotb.
In separate Instagram tributes, posted nearly three weeks after his death, his Friends co-stars Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer, Lisa Kudrow and Matt LeBlanc shared fond memories of Perry.
