Matthew Perry, Star of ‘Friends,’ Dies at 54
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Matthew Perry, Star of ‘Friends,’ Dies at 54
Mr. Perry, who died on Saturday, was best known for his role in “Friends,” the NBC sitcom that followed a group of young professionals living in Manhattan.
Matthew Perry, who portrayed Chandler Bing in the acclaimed sitcom “Friends,” has died. He was 54.
The death was confirmed by Capt. Scot Williams of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Robbery-Homicide division. He said the cause of death was not likely to be determined for some time, but there was no indication of foul play.
Mr. Perry was well known to American television audiences, featuring in over 200 episodes in all 10 seasons of “Friends,” the hit NBC show that followed a group of young professionals living in Manhattan. Mr. Perry starred alongside prominent actors like Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer and Lisa Kudrow.
Mr. Perry’s character, Chandler Bing, was notable for his sardonic wit.
“Friends” has endured decades after it first aired in 1994, gaining popularity among young audiences in recent years.
Though best known for “Friends,” Mr. Perry’s career in television spanned nearly four decades, with his earliest credit in 1979, when he was a young child in an episode of the cop show “240-Robert,” according to IMDb. He landed the role of Chandler Bing at 24.
He had roles in various television shows in the 2010s, including “Mr. Sunshine,” a 2011 ABC comedy in which he starred as Ben Donovan, the general manager of the Sunshine Center, a San Diego sports and entertainment arena. In that show, he portrayed a gloomy, self-absorbed loner who was turning 40. Mr. Perry also played Oscar Madison opposite the actor Thomas Lennon, who portrayed Felix Unger, in all three seasons of a remake of “The Odd Couple,” which ran on CBS from 2015 to 2017.
“I was a guy who wanted to become famous,” Mr. Perry told The New York Times in a 2002 interview. “There was steam coming out of my ears, 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.”
Mr. Perry had a history of addiction and related medical problems that, by his accounting, led him to spend more than half his life in treatment centers or sober living facilities.
In a memoir released last year, “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing,” he described his decades of drinking and drug use.
Mr. Perry first went to rehab in 1997 for what was described in news reports as an addiction to pain medication. In 2000, he was hospitalized for pancreatitis, an inflammation that can be caused by alcohol and drug abuse.
His addiction led to a series of complications in 2018 that included pneumonia, an exploded colon, a brief stint on life support, two weeks in a coma, nine months with a colostomy bag and more than a dozen stomach surgeries.
Two years ago, Mr. Perry, by his own admission then newly sober, appeared in a televised reunion of the “Friends” cast, in which its stars revisited some of the show’s most famous sets like the Central Perk coffee shop to banter about old episodes and revel in the nostalgia.
News of Mr. Perry’s death prompted fans worldwide to post tributes on social media.
“Matthew Perry lived a complicated life, but his effortless capacity to make people laugh was a remarkable gift,” Brandon Lewis, a writer in New York, said in a post on X.
Dr. John Leeds, a British gastroenterologist, wrote in a post, “Listened to his book over the summer where he so eloquently describes his struggles with drugs and alcohol.”
And RM of the boy band BTS, who has said he watched “Friends” to learn English, posted without comment on his Instagram story an image of a youthful, smiling Mr. Perry.
Jin Yu Young contributed reporting.
Orlando Mayorquin is a general assignment and breaking news reporter based in New York. More about Orlando Mayorquin
Matt Stevens is an arts and culture reporter for The Times based in New York. He previously covered national politics and breaking news. More about Matt Stevens
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