Matthew Langford Perry was an American and Canadian actor from Williamstown, Massachusetts. Although he was most known for his recurring role as Chandler Bing in the sitcom “Fiends,” he also starred in a variety of films including: “The Whole Nine Yards” with Bruce Willis, “Fools Rush In” with Salma Hayek, and “17 Again” with Zac Efron. Tragically, on Oct. 28, Perry was found unresponsive in his stand-alone hot tub at his Pacific Palisades home in Los Angeles, California. According to CNN, his death was a result of drowning caused by a heart attack. In November, the tox screen came back negative. He was 54 years old.
Matthew Perry was born on August 19, 1969, in Williamstown, Massachusetts. His mother, a Canadian journalist, worked as the Secretary of Press for the Canadian prime minister. His father was an American actor and model. When Perry was just a year old his parents separated. Later, when his mother remarried, he was moved to Ottawa, Ontario, where he was raised with his five younger siblings. At ten years old, Perry became a troublemaker at the Canadian boarding schools he attended. At 14, he became a top-ranked tennis player in the country but then moved to Los Angeles, California to live with his father, where he started his acting career.
Although Perry had many guest-starring roles that helped jump start his career, it was not until he landed his most iconic role, as Chandler Bing, in the 1990s sitcom “Friends,” did his career take off. Chandler is a fan-favorite main comedic character who lives in the same apartment complex as his five friends in Manhattan, New York. Perry starred in the series for all ten seasons and recently came back for the “Friends” reunion special in 2021.
In his personal life Perry constantly struggled with addiction. At the young age of 14, he became an alcoholic and carried that for years. Later in 1997, after a jet ski accident, he became addicted to pain relievers and ended up in a 28-day rehab facility. At the time, he was only 128 pounds and was taking around 55 Vicodin pills a day. Three years later, at age 30, he continued to be an alcoholic and steadily used drugs. His cast members had planned interventions for him but none had worked. It wasn’t until 2001 that filming was postponed for two months so Perry could get some help with his addictions. He went back to rehab and got treated for addictions to Vicodin, methadone, amphetamines, and alcohol. He couldn’t remember the last three years of working before that. After that, he was clean for quite some time, until 2018 when his colon burst due to opioid abuse. With all the complications, he had a 2% chance of surviving. During rehab, he would fake pain to get more drugs. After that, he was sober once and for all. It was reported that Perry spent $9 million on his addiction over the years. This included 14 surgeries, 15 rehab stays, therapy twice a week for 30 years, and over 6,000 AA meetings he attended. Over the years, and the many lessons learned, he opened the “Perry House” rehab organization for addicts in need of help just like him.
Since his death, friends, family, and castmates have all paid tribute. Although Matthew Perry was gone too soon, he will never be forgotten, since the world continues to mourn the friend we all lost.
