Matthew Perry, 54, dies after ‘drowning in jacuzzi at his LA home following two-hour pickleball session with no drugs found at the scene’ – as Friends co-star pays tribute and loved ones say they are in a ‘state of shock’
- Perry rose to fame in his role as Chandler Bing on the hit 90s sitcom Friends
- The Emmy-nominated actor secretly battled substance abuse for decades
- He was found dead in a hot tub at home at around 4pm local time on Saturday
Friends star Matthew Perry has died aged 54 after accidentally drowning in his jacuzzi at home.
The actor, who shot to fame as the sarcastic Chandler Bing in the seminal 90s sitcom, was found dead at his house in Los Angeles on Saturday after emergency crews were called at around 4pm local time.
He had reportedly played a two-hour game of Pickleball – a sport similar to tennis but played on a smaller court – earlier in the day, before sending his assistant out on an errand. When they returned, Perry was said to be found unresponsive in his hot tub.
Friends, which followed the lives of six friends in their 20s living in New York, was a smash hit across the globe when it aired between 1994 and 2004, and re-runs still remain hugely popular years later.
Perry won a worldwide fanbase for his role as Chandler, earning him an Emmy nomination in 2002 – but behind the glitz and glamour, he secretly battled substance abuse for decades.
There was no indication of foul play and no drugs were found at the scene of his death, sources said this morning.
Aerial images show Perry’s pool and hot tub where he was reportedly found dead yesterday
In his last post to his Instagram, shared earlier this week, the star shared images of him in his pool, saying: ‘Oh, so warm water swirling around makes you feel good? I’m Mattman.’
Perry, who never married but dated a number of stars including Julia Roberts, has been candid and public about his problems with drugs and alcohol, having first gone to rehab in 1997 for a pain medication addiction after a jet skiing accident.
Following this initial stint, he then went to rehab again in 2001 and 2011. He told an interviewer in 2016 that he doesn’t remember filming three seasons of Friends.
Despite hiding his demons from public view for years, Perry detailed his struggles in his 2022 memoir, Friends, Lovers And The Big Terrible Thing.
In the opening, he wrote: ‘Hi, my name is Matthew, although you may know me by another name. My friends call me Matty. And I should be dead.’
He added: ‘People would be surprised to know that I have mostly been sober since 2001. Save for about sixty or seventy little mishaps over the years.’
A longtime friend of Perry’s – who was in recovery with him – told DailyMail.com last night: ‘Everyone is in a total state of shock. People are crying on the phone and struggling to accept this news.
‘It’s no secret that he struggled with drugs and alcohol for years but the last time I spoke to him, which was within the last few weeks, he seemed to be in a good place.
‘He was upbeat and sounded sober and positive.
‘He’d been to rehab 17 times and nearly died from opioid abuse but he was someone who was sincere about taking his life, and his sobriety, one day at a time.
‘It’s such tragic news. Everyone is praying he didn’t relapse. Matt was a genuinely lovely guy. He was always the first to welcome newcomers to the group and would always volunteer to help and be of service.
‘We are all struggling to come to terms with this terrible news.’
Friends co-stars Maggie Wheeler and Morgan Fairchild remembered Perry for the joy he ‘brought to so many’ following his ‘shock’ death.
A coroner’s vehicle was also seen at the scene as family, friends and fans grappled with the loss of the beloved actor
Wheeler, who played Perry’s on-off girlfriend Janice Hosenstein during the early series of the TV show and often appeared to perform her catchphrase ‘Oh! My! God!’, paid tribute to Perry on Instagram.
‘What a loss,’ Wheeler captioned a picture of the pair.
‘The world will miss you Matthew Perry. The joy you brought to so many in your too short lifetime will live on.
‘I feel so very blessed by every creative moment we shared.’
Meanwhile Fairchild, who played Perry’s on-screen mother and erotic novel writer Nora Bing, said on Twitter: ‘I’m heartbroken about the untimely death of my ‘son’, Matthew Perry.’
The 73-year-old US actress added: ‘The loss of such a brilliant young actor is a shock.
‘I’m sending love and condolences to his friends and family, especially his dad, John Bennett Perry, who I worked with on Flamingo Road and Falcon Crest.’
The Inbetweeners star Blake Harrison said: ‘Matthew Perry was a huge inspiration to me growing up.
‘My friends & I would come into school having memorised his sarcastic one-liners, speech patterns, even Chandler’s dance.
‘He brought me so much joy & without knowing it he encouraged me to pursue acting. Thank you.’
Warner Bros, which produced Friends, said in a statement: ‘We are devastated to learn of Matthew Perry’s passing. He was a true gift to us all. Our heart goes out to his family, loved ones, and all of his fans.’
American broadcaster NBC, which aired the series for nearly a decade, added: ‘We are incredibly saddened by the too soon passing of Matthew Perry.
‘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,’ it said.
Perry was a natural fit for the role of Chandler, beloved for his sarcastic one-liners, and many of his mannerisms grew from the actor’s own behaviour.
He said in his memoir: ‘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.’
However, it was when he was first cast in Friends aged 24 that his alcohol addiction began to surface. By the end of the 10th series of the hit show, he became ‘entrenched in a lot of trouble’, Perry revealed years later.
He said in a 2016 interview that he did not remember filming three seasons of the show because he was a ‘little out of it at the time’.
At one point during his time on Friends, Perry said he was taking 55 Vicodin painkillers a day and was down to 128lb – just over 9st – in weight.
Massachusetts-born Perry grew up in Canada where he attended school with Justin Trudeau – who is now the country’s prime minister.
He also paid tribute, writing: ‘Matthew Perry’s passing is 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.
‘Thanks for all the laughs, Matthew. You were loved – and you will be missed.’
After moving to LA, Perry starred as Chazz Russell in Boys Will Be Boys and also had roles in shows including sitcom Growing Pains before becoming a global superstar as Chandler.
‘This was the only guy to play him,’ creator of Friends Marta Kauffman said in the 2021 reunion special.
The star laid bare the height of his terrible drug and alcohol addiction battle which nearly cost him his life in a memoir titled ‘Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir’.
Perry also revealed that his colon ruptured as a result of his opioid addiction when he was 49.
Doctors gave him only a two percent chance of survival and he was in a coma for two weeks followed by months more in the hospital.
Perry required 14 surgeries to help repair all of the abdominal damage, and he admitted to having gone to rehab 15 times over the years in hopes of kicking his drug addiction.
At one point during his Friends career, he admits he was taking 55 Vicodin a day and was down to 128 pounds but yet he ‘didn’t know how to stop.’
He told an interviewer in 2016 that he doesn’t remember filming three seasons of Friends.
‘I had this odd rule that I would never drink on a set,’ Perry said. ‘But I went to work in extreme cases of hangover. It’s so horrible to feel that way and have to work and be funny on top of that.’
Tributes have flooded in from across the entertainment industry for Perry (pictured posing for a portrait in 2015)
He even revealed he would go to real estate open houses – not because he was interested in buying property but to see if he could steal drugs from medicine cabinets.
Chandler Bing – the group’s most sarcastic and quick-witted, but occasionally awkward and insecure, member – quickly became a fan favorite.
Perry and his co-stars – Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer – negotiated $1 million each, per episode, by the end of their colossally popular and zeitgeist-setting 236-episode run.
In a sign of the show’s enduring appeal, the gang reportedly pocketed $2.5 million each for a reunion episode in 2021.
During that episode, Perry’s slurred speech prompted concern among fans.
Perry also surprised his co-stars by admitting to having suffered severe anxiety ‘every night’ during the filming of the sitcom.
Born on August 19, 1969 in Massachusetts, Perry grew up in Ottawa and was raised by his mother, Suzanne Morrison, a Canadian writer and former press aide for Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.
Morrison and Perry’s father were married from 1968 to 1970 and she later married Canadian broadcast journalist Keith Morrison, who has been on Dateline for decades, in 1981.
In Canada, Perry was a top-rated tennis player but at 15 moved to Los Angeles to be closer to his father, John Bennett Perry, an actor known for several shows, including Falcon Crest, and later on Old Spice commercials.
In the 1980s and ’90s, Perry landed spots on the decades’ most popular TV shows like Charles in Charge, Who’s The Boss?, Growing Pains and Beverly Hills, 90210.
He also had a role in A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon, a movie released in 1988 that starred River Phoenix.
The film was ‘one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had, because I was 16 years old and in Chicago all by myself, no parents around,’ Perry told BuzzFeed. ‘I knew that I wanted to act.’
He told The New York Times in 2002 that he sought fame. ‘There was steam coming out of my ears, I wanted to be famous so badly.
Source: Daily Mail
