Matthew Perry was found dead at his Palisades home on October 28. Officials are awaiting autopsy results on the cause of his death, but one thing is for certain: his death and his life have rocked the world.
Perry has several acting accolades, but his most beloved is portraying Chandler Bing on the 10 season hit sitcom Friends. However, that is not how he wants to be remembered. He was born on August 19, 1969 in Williamstown, Massachusetts to Suzanne and John Bennett Perry. He was raised in Canada after his parents separated and his mother remarried Keith Morrison. Throughout his acting career, Perry did not shy away from sharing his struggles with abusing alcohol and drugs which started at a young age. By age10, he was smoking, drinking, stealing, and letting his grades slip. However, he had an undeniable love for tennis; dedicating 10 hours a day to the sport and was the No. 2 junior tennis player in Ottawa by the time he was 13, as reported by The New York Times in 2002. Sadly, after moving to L.A. when he was 15, he realized he could not make it in tennis as he told Men’s Health “everyone in L.A. just killed me.” Luckily, for the rest of the world, Perry turned to acting and comedy. He always had an affinity for making people laugh around him and turned it into his career. During Friends, writers would often turn to Perry for advice on certain scenes because he was always ready with a joke. Perry lived and breathed Friends commenting that “all great comedies are about lovable losers sitting in a room together” to Men’s Health in 2012. He is most known for his cunning one liners as Chandler Bing that will not only get anyone to laugh in a room, but also challenge your most sarcastic friend’s remarks. Perry contributed much more to the world than simply giving comfort through a beloved tv show.
He often dealt with addiction and according to his autobiography Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir, he entered rehab 15 times and attended 6,000 Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. Perry spoke about the loneliness and isolation he experienced while undergoing cycles of abuse and rehab. Despite the pain he endured, he wanted to help people. Perry emphasized that if an alcoholic or drug addict approached him asking for help, he would always say “Yes, I know how to do that. I will do that for you, even if I can’t always do it for myself.” How remarkable it must be to push someone out of the hole to a brighter future when you yourself cannot climb up. In 2013, he repurposed his Malibu beach house into The Perry House to help other men find sobriety. He also wrote a 2016 dark comedy play titled The End of Longing that illustrated an exaggerated view of his alcoholic nature. Perry stated, “I had something important to say to people like me, and to people who love people like me.”
Beyond Friends, Perry also starred in several movies such as The Ron Clark Story, 17 Again, and Serving Sara. His most notable movie may be Fools Rush In, a romantic comedy where he starred alongside Salma Hayek and his father John Bennett Perry. He thought of it as his best movie and revealed that he “didn’t know how great it would be” to work with his father.
Matthew Perry was more than just an actor, but he was someone who elicited a laugh from everyone he met. He was more than an addict, but someone who understood the struggles of addiction and wanted to help those experiencing that pain.
“When I die, as far as my so-called accomplishments go, it would be nice if Friends were listed far behind the things I did to try to help other people.” – Matthew Perry