Matthew Perry, who played the hilarious role of Chandler Bing in the popular 90s comedy drama ‘Friends’, has died at the age of 54.
According to American media, the actor was found dead in a hot tub at his home in Los Angeles on Saturday, October 28.
Sources told the Los Angeles Times and TMZ that police were called to Matthew Perry’s home around 4 p.m., where he was found unconscious and motionless.
Los Angeles police confirmed to The Independent that officers were called to Matthew Perry’s home, but declined further comment.
“Early on, there are no signs of foul play in Matthew Perry’s death, and the investigation is ongoing,” he said.
NBC later confirmed his death in a statement, saying: ‘We are deeply saddened by the untimely death of Matthew Perry.’
‘He brought a lot of happiness to millions of people around the world with his brilliant humor and his sense of humor. Their legacy will live on for countless generations.’
Perry rose to fame with the long-running role of Chandler Bing on ‘Friends.’ This drama is one of the most successful TV series of all time.
The drama ran for 10 seasons on NBC from 1994 to 2004. The show catapulted its young actors Perry, Jennifer Aniston, David Schumer, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow and Courteney Cox to global fame.
Following a close-knit group of six friends living in shared apartments in New York City, ‘Friends’ featured several of Chandler’s key storylines. For example his secret affair with Monica Geller (Cox), sister of his best friend Ross (Schumer), which eventually leads to their marriage.
Perry was born in 1969 in Plymouth, Massachusetts to actor John Bent Perry and mother Suzanne Marie Langford.
He spent his childhood in Montreal, Canada and Los Angeles. He was a classmate of future Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
He started acting at a young age before gaining fame as a part of the popular 90s drama Friends.
When the characters of the popular comedy series ‘Friends’ turned 30 (Photo: Warner Bros. Television)
He played the hilarious and ever-present answer Chandler Bing in 234 episodes of Friends. He was nominated for an Emmy Award for the role in 2002.
It can be said that Chandler’s character evolved the most out of the six friends on the show. In the beginning he was a socially awkward young man, completely ignorant of women, but later became a responsible husband and father capable of moments of genuine sincerity.
He was also known for many of the show’s best short commentaries, some of which he himself invented, besides being a part of hundreds of memorable scenes from the show. He and his co-star LeBlanc double as Chandler and Joey, good friends of Monica and Rachel (Aniston). Both of them lived in the flat in front of him in the show.
His best storylines included a relationship with the insufferable Janice (Maggie Weller), a love triangle with Joey’s girlfriend Kathy and a one-night stand in London with Monica that turned into a long-lasting romance.
It has often been said how closely Perry resembled his on-screen character. When he first read the script, he was convinced that someone had been stalking him for a year, stealing his jokes, copying his ‘disgusting but hilarious approach’.
“It wasn’t whether I might play Chandler or not,” he said. I was Chandler myself.’
The similarities were such that Perry’s actor friends approached him for advice before auditioning for the series in 1994. Perry used to prescribe techniques and claim that his friends had duplicated them. When it came to his audition, he used the technique of ‘breaking all the rules’ and emphasizing odd places in the phrases he played, which became one of Chandler’s hallmarks.
She confessed her insecurities to her new cast during an interview conducted by the producers before filming began. His humor was a defense mechanism. In fact, Perry was so shaken by his self-esteem that the audience’s silence at his jokes would send him into a state of ‘tetanus’.
In his autobiography Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, Perry recounts his career memories as well as his struggles with addiction.
Perry recalled a moment three weeks before the audition for Friends, when he fell to his knees and prayed.
‘Oh God, you can do whatever you want with me, please give me fame.’
Perry wrote that he first started drinking at the age of 14, but his addiction worsened under the ‘white hot flame of fame’ following starring in Friends. While he was drinking heavily during the first two seasons, he became addicted to the opiate pain medication Vicodin following a jet ski accident in 1996 while filming ‘Fool’s Rush’ with Salma Hayek.
At his worst, he would take up to 55 strong painkillers a day to film. In his memoirs, he wrote that fans might tell by his appearance that he was drinking or taking drugs: ‘When I gained weight, it meant I was drinking. When I got leaner it meant pills. When my beard grew, it meant a lot of pills.’
Perry wrote that he was never drunk during filming. He also recalled the moment Aniston asked him regarding his drug use.
This section contains related reference points (Related Nodes field).
Perry said Aniston told her, ‘I know you’ve been drinking. Facing Jennifer Aniston was devastating. And I was confused.’
I asked, ‘How did you know? I have never worked drunk. I’m trying to hide it.’
‘We can smell it,’ Aniston said awkwardly but affectionately. He used the word ‘we’, which hit me like a hammer.’
The cast of Friends remained the same following the last episode aired in 2004, and seemed thrilled to be reunited on the set of the HBO special.
Perry and his Friends co-stars may not have found fame outside of Friends, but their other television dramas include Boys Will Be Boys, Growing Pains, Beverly Hills 90210, The West Wing and Scrubs and The Odd Couple. are
He also played roles on the silver screen, including Fool Rush In, Da Kid, and 17 Again. He was not acting since 2017.
In 2021, he broke off his engagement to his literary manager, Molly Hurwitz, following only a few months of engagement. In a brief statement, he told PEOPLE: ‘Sometimes things just don’t work out and this is one of them. My best wishes for Molly.’
His previous relationship included a six-month dating with Julia Roberts, who guest-starred on Friends in 1996 and specifically requested that he be allowed to work in scenes with Perry.
Perry wrote in his autobiography how he and Julia sent each other ‘hundreds’ of faxes before they started dating. After that, they started making five-hour phone calls, and eventually started dating.
Speaking regarding his split from Julia in April 1996, Perry wrote: ‘Dating Julia Roberts was too much for me. I was constantly convinced that she was going to break up with me.
‘So instead of facing the inevitable pain of losing her, I parted ways with the beautiful and intelligent Julia Roberts.’
Perry revealed that he broke up with all the ‘amazing women’ he was dating because he was ‘scared to death that they would find out I was inadequate … and break up with me. will do.’
Perry shared a cute photo with her dad on Instagram earlier this month, even though he doesn’t use social media much.
In the photo posted on October 15, she can be seen holding her father in her arms. ‘Here’s me and my dad, John,’ he captioned the photo. Both have drinks in their hands.’
In its report on his death, the Los Angeles Times quoted a poignant line from Perry’s memoir at a book fair in April.
“Nobody wanted to be famous more than me,” Perry said.
‘I was convinced that it (fame) was the solution to the problems. I was 25 years old. It was the second year of ‘Friends’ and following eight months I realized that I was not happy working hard for success. This does not remove my deprivations. I mightn’t get much attention. Fame doesn’t do what you think it’s going to do. It was just a hoax.’
#Friends #Chandler #died #age
2024-07-11 15:07:24