'Friends' star Matthew Perry dead at 54
- Matthew Perry, who spent a decade playing Chandler Bing on the iconic sitcom "Friends," has died.
- Authorities found the 54-year-old dead at his Los Angeles-area home, multiple outlets reported.
Matthew Perry, who played Chandler Bing in "Friends," has died, according to multiple reports.
The Los Angeles Times reported that authorities responded to Perry's home at about 4 p.m., where they discovered the actor unresponsive in his hot tub. The sources, who spoke to the outlet on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing, did not cite a cause of death but indicated that the authorities did not suspect foul play.Perry was 54 years old.TMZ, the outlet that first reported the news, indicated that authorities did not find drugs at the scene, citing law-enforcement sources. In his later years, Perry was vocal about his struggles with alcoholism and drug addiction.Representatives for Perry and the Los Angeles Police Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Insider.
Perry's family released a statement Sunday saying they are "heartbroken" over the actor's tragic death. He is survived by both his parents and five siblings.
"We are heartbroken by the tragic loss of our beloved son and brother," the statement said. "Matthew brought so much joy to the world, both as an actor and a friend."
Tennis star turned actor
Born in Williamstown, Massachusetts, to Suzanne Marie Langford, a Canadian journalist, and John Bennett Perry, an American actor most recognizable as the face of "Old Spice" deodorant, Perry showed a talent for tennis at a young age.
He trained to go pro, The Hollywood Reporter said, before abandoning the dream at 15 when he moved to Los Angeles with his father and pivoted to a career in acting."Giving up tennis wasn't really a decision I had to make. I was a very good tennis player in Ottawa, Canada — nationally ranked when I was, like, 13. Then I moved to Los Angeles when I was 15, and everyone in LA just killed me," he told Men's Health in 2012. "I was pretty great in Canada. Not so much in Los Angeles. It was insane. I realized I wouldn't be playing tennis for a living, so I went for acting."Perry had his first acting gig at age 10 when his father helped land him a small role on an episode of "240-Robert," an ABC drama series that ran for two seasons.
In high school, he dove into the profession, honing his comedic chops with improv classes at the LA Connection and landing guest spots on the sitcoms "Charles in Charge" and "Silver Spoons" as a teenager in the '80s.
A long career in comedy
After gaining some notoriety in roles on "Growing Pains," "Boys Will Be Boys," and a guest slot on the HBO comedy "Dream On," Perry caught the attention of Marta Kauffman and David Crane, who sought him out for a role in their new project initially titled "Six of One" that was later renamed "Friends," The Hollywood Reporter said.
Perry shot to stardom during the 10-season run of "Friends," appearing in each of the 236 episodes as the fan favorite Chandler Bing. Though he became known for his comedic timing and signature cadence, Perry's character also had a multi-season romantic arc with his costar Courteney Cox's character, Monica Geller.Before "Friends" became a cultural touchstone, each of the six actors initially earned roughly $20,000 per episode. By the end of the series, Perry — alongside his costars Cox, Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc, and Lisa Kudrow — was making upward of $1 million per episode, The Hollywood Reporter said.
While he continued appearing on TV in guest slots on shows including "Ally McBeal," "The West Wing," and "Scrubs," Perry would later go on to star in multiple films, mostly comedy, including "The Whole Nine Yards," "Three to Tango," and "17 Again."
An advocate for mental health
In his memoir published last year, "Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing," Perry wrote that he'd been dealing with opioid addiction and alcoholism for decades, stemming from a "lifetime of feeling abandoned," thinking that he was "not enough," and having a "desperate need for love."
Though he mainly kept it quiet in the early years of his career, Perry said he attended 6,000 Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, went to rehab 15 times, and underwent 14 surgeries throughout his drug addiction.Insider previously reported that the actor wrote in his memoir that he'd had a near-death experience when he was 49 after his colon burst from his opioid use.
"I was put on a thing called an ECMO machine, which does all the breathing for your heart and your lungs. And that's called a Hail Mary. No one survives that," he said.
"I wanted to share when I was safe from going into the dark side of everything again," he said. "I had to wait until I was pretty safely sober — and away from the active disease of alcoholism and addiction — to write it all down. The main thing was, I was pretty certain that it would help people."
This is a developing story.