Hollywood stars have hailed the “comedic genius” of Friends star Matthew Perry after the actor’s death at 54.
The American-Canadian star, best known for playing Chandler Bing in the sitcom Friends, was found dead in a hot tub at his Los Angeles home on Saturday.
A Los Angeles fire department spokesperson confirmed that first responders were called to his address about a “water emergency”. He was discovered unresponsive about 4pm, according to unnamed law enforcement sources speaking to the Los Angeles Times. No drugs were found at the scene, sources said, but prescription medications were recovered at the home and hence toxicology will be part of the investigation, the LA Times reported.
The cause of death, which will be determined by the Los Angeles county coroner’s office, may not be known for some time, but foul play is not suspected, according to Cap Scot Williams, who leads the city’s police robbery homicide division that is investigating Perry’s death.
Perry’s family said in a statement to People: “We are heartbroken by the tragic loss of our beloved son and brother. Matthew brought so much joy to the world, both as an actor and a friend.
“You all meant so much to him and we appreciate the tremendous outpouring of love.”
Perry’s last post on Instagram, on 23 October, included a photograph of him sitting in a pool or hot tub at night, with the words: “Oh, so warm water swirling around makes you feel good? I’m Mattman.”
Former schoolfriend Justin Trudeau, actor Viola Davis and singer Adele were among those who paid tribute to the actor, who struggled with addiction and strived to help others who battled similar demons. Screen legend Kathleen Turner, who played Chandler’s transgender parent, told the Guardian: “I was proud to play his ‘Dad’”.
Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister, wrote on social media that Perry’s death was “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,” he wrote. “Thanks for all the laughs, Matthew. You were loved – and you will be missed.”
Adele, who announced earlier this month that she has quit drinking, paused her Las Vegas show to pay an emotional tribute to Perry.
“He’s probably the best comedic character of all time,” she said. “He was so open with his struggles with addiction and sobriety, which I think is incredibly, incredibly brave.”
Gwyneth Paltrow paid tribute to Perry and recalled their time spent together in the summer of 1993. In a post to her Instagram page, the actor said: “I met Matthew Perry in 1993 at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Massachusetts. We were both there for most of the summer doing plays. He was so funny and so sweet and so much fun to be with.
“We drove out to swim in creeks, had beers in the local college bar, kissed in a field of long grass. It was a magical summer. He had shot the pilot of Friends but it had not aired yet. He was nervous, hoping his big break was just around the corner. It was. We stayed friends for a while until we drifted apart, but I was always happy to see him when I did. I am super sad today, as so many of us are. I hope Matthew is at peace at long last. I really do.”
The Friends co-creators, Marta Kauffman and David Crane, along with the show’s executive producer, Kevin Bright, spoke of their shock at his death. In a joint statement, they said: “He was always the funniest person in the room. More than that, he was the sweetest, with a giving and selfless heart.” They added: “This truly is The One Where Our Hearts Are Broken.”
Perry had expressed the hope that he would be remembered for the work he had done to help fellow addicts – including his 2016 play The End of Longing and his 2022 bestselling memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing. The actor Hank Azaria said Perry, who was the first friend he made when he moved to Los Angeles, had helped him give up drinking. “I really loved him. A lot of us who were close to him felt like we lost him to drugs and alcohol a long time ago because, as he documented in his autobiography, there was so much suffering. I had to pick it up and put down the biography like 11 times it was so painful for me to read.”
Davis said the book had “shifted so many close to my heart. The people no one sees and most throw away. It was a gift.”
Warner Bros Television Group, which produced all 10 seasons of Friends from 1994 until 2004, paid tribute to “our dear friend” and “an incredibly gifted actor”.
“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,” it wrote.
Perry, who was a ranked youth tennis player in Canada, moved into acting after relocating to LA when he was 15. After small roles in Growing Pains, Beverly Hills 90210 and Dream On, Perry secured the role that would define his career: the sarcastic and neurotic Chandler Bing.
Friends, a comedy about six professionals living in New York City, quickly became a phenomenon, winning multiple Emmys and attaining record ratings; after 10 seasons, the 2004 finale reached more than 52 million viewers in the US, making it the most watched TV episode of the 2000s.
“People come up to me every day and say, ‘Hey, Chandler!’ I don’t respond to it,” he said in a 2014 interview. “If somebody says, ‘Hi, Matthew, I love your work,’ that’s one thing. But if somebody goes, ‘Yo, Chandler’, I don’t like that. I’m tired of it. I’m not Chandler.”
Maggie Wheeler, who played Chandler’s girlfriend Janice in Friends, said the joy Perry brought to “so many” in his “too short lifetime will live on”.
“I feel so very blessed by every creative moment we shared,” she wrote on Instagram.
Morgan Fairchild, who played Chandler’s mother Nora Bing, said: “I’m heartbroken about the untimely death of my ‘son’ … The loss of such a brilliant young actor is a shock.”
Born in Massachusetts in 1969 to an American father and a Canadian mother, Perry grew up in Canada, where his mother worked as a press aide to the Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau. In his memoir, Perry recalled acting up after his father abandoned his family to chase his own dreams of becoming an actor – including bullying a young Justin Trudeau. “I decided to end my argument with him when he was put in charge of an entire army,” he wrote.
As a teenager, Perry moved to Hollywood with the hope of reconnecting with his father. It was there that he began to enjoy acting and was eventually spotted at a diner – “charming a bunch of young women” – by director William Richert, who left a note asking him to be in his next movie, A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon, alongside River Phoenix.
Perry was 24 when he started playing Chandler. He reflected that when he read the part, “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”. In a 2019 interview, Crane said the role of sardonic joker was the most difficult to cast, with Craig Bierko, Jon Cryer and Jon Favreau also considered.
“Marta [Kauffman] and I were thinking, ‘Chandler is just poorly written’,” said Crane. “Then Matthew came in and you went, ‘Oh, well, there you go. Done. Done. That’s the guy.’”
Perry was nominated for an Emmy award five times, once for Friends and twice for his role as lawyer Joe Quincy on The West Wing.
During his tenure on Friends, Perry starred in films including Fools Rush In with Salma Hayek, Three to Tango with Neve Campbell and The Whole Nine Yards with Bruce Willis. He also took small roles in Ally McBeal and Scrubs.
In a 2002 interview with the New York Times, he confessed: “I wanted to be famous so badly. You want the attention, you want the bucks, and you want the best seat in the restaurant. I didn’t think what the repercussions would be.”
Perry’s personal life was blighted by addiction, starting in 1997, when he became addicted to pain medication after a jetskiing accident. He later claimed to not remember three years of his time on Friends and to spending over $9m on his fight to stay sober.
“I was taking 55 Vicodin a day, I weighed 128lb (58kg), I was on Friends getting watched by 30 million people – and that’s why I can’t watch the show, because I was brutally thin,” he said. Perry later admitted he had suffered severe anxiety “every night” while filming the show and said he felt nothing when the show ended.
When Friends ended in 2004, Perry’s next small-screen lead was in Aaron Sorkin’s Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, which was cancelled after one season. In 2009 he starred in hit comedy 17 Again alongside Zac Efron and later guest-starred on both The Good Wife and The Good Fight.
Perry also led one-season sitcom Go On and a remake of The Odd Couple, which lasted for three seasons. In 2016 he wrote and starred in the play The End of Longing, which opened in the West End and later transferred to Broadway. “I had something important to say to people like me, and to people who love people like me,” he said.
Perry estimated he had relapsed “60 or 70 times” since first getting sober in 2001.
In 2019, he was put in a two-week coma when his colon exploded due to opiate abuse; he underwent 14 surgeries to repair the damage. “At this point in my life, the words of gratitude pour out of me because I should be dead, and yet somehow I am not,” he wrote in his memoir.
The book was a hit with readers and critics. The Observer’s Barbara Ellen called it “harrowing and revealing about the juncture where extreme compound addiction collides with mega-celebrity”.
Reflecting on his own desire for celebrity, Perry said: “You have to get famous to know that it’s not the answer. And nobody who is not famous will ever truly believe that.”
