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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Peter Bradshaw

Matthew Perry was a tremendous performer. So why wasn’t he a movie star?

Special significance … Matthew Perry in 17 Again.
Special significance … Matthew Perry in 17 Again. Photograph: New Line Cinema/Allstar

Dr Doug Ross from TV’s ER made it in the movies. Wisecracking, balding private detective David Addison from TV’s Moonlighting made it in the movies. West Philadelphia-born-and-raised-kid Will Smith in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air made it in the movies.

So why not Chandler Bing? Why couldn’t Matthew Perry, that brilliant performer whose glorious TV character became everyone’s ideal friend and the very dating-app epitome of GSOH, have joined George Clooney, Bruce Willis and Will Smith in the cinema? Or as a shrewd, smart writer, could Perry have followed Richie Cunningham from TV’s Happy Days – director Ron Howard – for a career behind the camera?

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