Matthew Perry, goodbye, friend

Actor Matthew Perry, one of the stars of Friends, was found dead yesterday in his Los Angeles residence, according to US media reports.

Rescuers found Perry, 54, without vital signs in a hot tub at his home in Los Angeles and were unable to revive him, authorities told the Los Angeles Times.

The LA Times and TMZ were the first to report the incident and both said there were no signs of foul play, citing anonymous sources. No drugs were found at the death scene either.

Authorities responded to a call from his assistant around 4 p.m., who called 911.

“We are devastated by the passing of our dear friend Matthew Perry,” Warner Bros. Television Group, which produced Friends, said in a statement to the Times.

“Matthew was an incredibly talented actor and an indelible part of the Warner Bros. Television Group family. The impact of his comedic genius was felt around the world and his legacy will live on in the hearts of many people. “This is a heartbreaking day and we send our love to his family, his loved ones, and all of his devoted fans,” he added.

“We are incredibly saddened by the too-soon passing of Matthew Perry,” NBC, which aired the series for all 10 seasons, said in its own statement to the Times. “He brought so much joy to hundreds of millions of people around the world with his perfect comedic tone and wry wit of him. “His legacy will endure through countless generations.”

“There is nothing we can say that will make this less terrible, we will always miss you, Matthew Perry,” Warner Channel Latin America expressed solidarity on Instagram.

Perry was best known for his portrayal of the sarcastic Chandler Bing on the popular NBC series Friends, which ran for 10 seasons from 1994 to 2004.

Perry had battled his addiction to alcohol and painkillers for years and went to rehabilitation clinics on several occasions.

In his memoir Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, Perry describes attending detox therapy 65 times, spending about $9 million in his attempts to get sober.

He also experienced health problems, including a serious colon rupture due to his drug use, which required seven hours of surgery and a colostomy bag for several months.

Perry dedicated his book to “everyone suffering out there” and wrote in the foreword: “I should be dead.”

The popular comedy was about the lives of six young New Yorkers on adventures through love affairs, jobs and ties.
of friendship.

Perry and her co-stars — Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer — each negotiated $1 million per episode at the end of their wildly successful 236-episode series, which ran for 10 years.

At its peak: for a Super Bowl episode in 1996 and the 2004 series finale, the broadcast garnered more than 50 million live viewers, the Los Angeles Times recalled.

In a sign of the show's enduring appeal, each of the main leads reportedly earned $2.5 million for appearing in a reunion episode
in 2021.

During that broadcast, Perry worried fans about his difficulties speaking and surprised his co-stars by admitting to having suffered "every night" from episodes of severe anxiety during filming.

In his book, reports the Los Angeles Times, his first drink was at the age of 14 and he acknowledged his alcoholism until he was 21. His hospitalization in 2018 for a ruptured colon left him with 2% of being able to survive for one night.

“No one wanted to be famous more than me,” Perry told The Times in April, after discussing his memoir material at the Book Festival.

“I was convinced it was the answer. I was 25 years old, it was the second year of Friends and eight months later, I realized that the American dream did not make me happy, it did not fill the voids in my life. I couldn't get enough attention. Fame doesn't do what you think it's going to do. “It was all a trick.”

When the newspaper asked him how he would like to be remembered, he said: “As a man who lived life, loved well, lived well and helped people. That meeting me was a good thing and not something
bad".

Perry was the son of a Canadian father and an American mother, was born in Massachusetts, and was raised in Canada before moving to Los Angeles. His parents divorced when he was one year old.

In addition to Friends, Perry appeared in films such as Fools Rush In, with Salma Hayek, and The Whole Nine Yards, with Bruce Willis.

She made guest appearances on shows like The West Wing and The Good Wife.

With information from AFP