Friends Star Matthew Perry Dead At 54: Reports

Matthew Perry, a beloved actor known for his role as Chandler Bing in the classic ’90s sitcom Friends, died on Saturday at age 54, according to TMZ and The Los Angeles Times.

Law enforcement officials told TMZ that the actor was found dead in his jacuzzi at his home in LA from what appears to be a drowning incident. Authorities responded to Perry’s house at 4pm, where he was found unresponsive, the LA Times reported.

The exact cause of death has not been cited, and the Los Angeles Police Department’s Robbery Homicide detective is examining the death. Perry’s team did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.

Officials said that no drugs were found on scene and no signs of foul play. Perry has been open about his decades-long struggle with drug and alcohol addiction, including while filming Friends. 

Perry was born in Williamstown, Massachusetts and raised in Ottawa, Canada. He later moved to Los Angeles as a teenager and landed a few TV appearances, including in Boys Will Be Boys, Growing Pains” and Sydney, before making his big break in the Emmy-nominated show Friends, which was about a close-knit group of friends living in New York City and navigating adulthood.

In 1994, he portrayed the sarcastic but beloved character Chandler Bing, who lived with his best friend Joey (Matt LeBlanc) across the hall from his best friend’s sister — and later, wife — Monica (Courtney Cox).

He starred alongside big-name actors Matt LeBlanc, Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer, Lisa Kudrow and Courtney Cox during the show’s 10-season run. The show was a major success, even years after the show ended in 2004, garnering love and attention from fans across different generations.

Fans lauded the characters and the humorous, fun dynamic between the cast members, who came together in 2021 for Friends: The Reunion to talk about the show, their favorite memories, the emotional finale and the lasting bond that formed between them.

During the reunion, Perry spoke about how he didn’t remember filming seasons 3 through 6 because he had been struggling with substance abuse. He opened up about his years-long addiction struggles in 2013, People reported.

“I had a big problem with alcohol and pills and I couldn’t stop. Eventually things got so bad that I couldn’t hide it, and then everybody knew,” he said. Perry went to rehab twice and opened up a sober living center called the Perry House.

In November 2022, Perry wrote a memoir called Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, which details his experiences filming the hit show.

″Friends had been a safe place, a touchstone of calm for me; it had given me a reason to get out of bed every morning, and it had also given me a reason to take it just a little bit easier the night before,” Perry wrote in the memoir, according to Business Insider.

“It was the time of our lives. It was like we got some new piece of amazing news every day. Even I knew only a madman (which in many moments I had been nonetheless) would screw up a job like that.”

After Friends ended, Perry continued acting in shows such as Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and The Odd Couple, and films such as 17 Again. In 2016, he also wrote and starred in a London play called The End of Longing.

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