Actor Matthew Perry, known for his role as Chandler Bing on the beloved NBC sitcom Friends, passed away earlier tonight at the age of 54. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Perry apparently drowned in a hot tub at his Los Angeles home when authorities were called to the scene around 4 p.m. PST.
Perry has struggled with substance and alcohol abuse in the past, sharing his experiences in his memoir Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing. Perry was also very vocal about how pills and alcohol impacted him physically while working on Friends, whether it was the weight gain drinking caused or the extreme weight loss from the pills. Co-star Jennifer Aniston (The Morning Show) checked in on her friend, even calling him out on his drinking at one point, for which Perry became grateful for. Perry landed his hit role on Friends at the age of twenty-four, the youngest of his co-stars. The actor quickly realized the fame and fortune he so desperately wanted did not fill the holes in his life he was hoping it would.
The sitcom Friends ran from 1994 to 2004, becoming one of the most successful television shows in U.S TV history. The show was nominated for sixty-two primetime Emmys, winning six. Perry co-starred alongside Aniston, Courtney Cox (Scream), Matt LeBlanc (Man With A Plan), Lisa Kudrow (Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion), and David Schwimmer (Madagascar). Via The Hollywood Reporter, each episode of the show collected an average of twenty-five million viewers. Perry’s character of Chandler Bing was often the comedic relief in more tense situations on the show. Chandler’s need to make others laugh was deeply rooted in childhood trauma; Perry was the only one who was able to pull it off. According to The Hollywood Reporter, co-creator of the show, David Crane (Dream On), spoke with the Today Show in 2019 revealing this of Perry’s audition, “Then Matthew came in and you went, oh well, there you go. Done. Done. That’s our guy.”
News of Perry’s passing has hit fans of his hard, as condolences have flooded the internet.