LOS ANGELES (AP) — “Friends” star Matthew Perry, the Emmy-nominated actor whose sarcastic, however lovable Chandler Bing was amongst tv’s most well-known and most quotable characters, has died at 54.
The actor was discovered useless of an obvious drowning at his Los Angeles residence Saturday, in accordance with the Los Angeles Times and superstar web site TMZ, which was the primary to report the information. Both shops cited unnamed sources confirming Perry’s dying.
“Matthew was an incredibly gifted actor and an indelible part of the Warner Bros. Television Group family,” the corporate mentioned in an announcement. “The impact of his comedic genius was felt around the world, and his legacy will live on in the hearts of so many. This is a heartbreaking day, and we send our love to his family, his loved ones, and all of his devoted fans.”
Perry’s publicists and different representatives didn’t instantly reply to messages from The Associated Press in search of remark.
Asked to substantiate police response to what was listed as Perry’s residence handle, LAPD Officer Drake Madison instructed the AP that officers had gone to that block “for a death investigation of a male in his 50s.”
Perry’s 10 seasons on “Friends” made him one in all Hollywood’s most recognizable actors, starring reverse Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow and David Schwimmer as a good friend group in New York.
As Chandler, he performed the quick-witted, insecure and neurotic roommate of LeBlanc’s Joey and an in depth good friend of Schwimmer’s Ross. During the present’s hijinks, he might be counted on to chime in with a line like “Could this BE any more awkward?” or one other well-timed quip.
Perry was open about his lengthy and public battle with dependancy, writing initially of his 2022 million-selling memoir: “Hi, my name is Matthew, although you may know me by another name. My friends call me Matty. And I should be dead.”
“Friends” ran from 1994 till 2004, profitable one greatest comedy collection Emmy Award in 2002. The forged notably banded collectively for later seasons to acquire a wage of $1 million per episode for every.
By the “Friends” finale, Chandler is married to Cox’s Monica they usually have a household, reflecting the journey of the core forged from single New Yorkers making an attempt to determine their lives out to a number of of them married and beginning households.
The collection was one in all tv’s greatest hits and has taken on a brand new life — and located shocking reputation with youthful followers — in recent times on streaming companies.
Perry described studying the “Friends” script for the primary time in his memoir, “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing.”
“It was as if someone had followed me around for a year, stealing my jokes, copying my mannerisms, photocopying my world-weary yet witty view of life. One character in particular stood out to me: it wasn’t that I was thought I could ‘play’ Chandler. I ‘was’ Chandler.”
Unknown on the time was the battle Perry had with dependancy and an intense want to please audiences.
“’Friends’ was huge. I couldn’t jeopardize that. I loved the script. I loved my co-actors. I loved the scripts. I loved everything about the show but I was struggling with my addictions which only added to my sense of shame,” he wrote in his memoir. “I had a secret and no one could know.”
“I felt like I was gonna die if the live audience didn’t laugh, and that’s not healthy for sure. But I could sometimes say a line and the audience wouldn’t laugh and I would sweat and sometimes go into convulsions,” Perry wrote. “If I didn’t get the laugh I was supposed to get I would freak out. I felt that every single night. This pressure left me in a bad place. I also knew of the six people making that show, only one of them was sick.”
He recalled in his memoir that Aniston confronted him about being inebriated whereas filming.
“I know you’re drinking,” he remembered her telling him as soon as. “We can smell it,” she mentioned, in what Perry referred to as a “kind of weird but loving way, and the plural ‘we’ hit me like a sledgehammer.”
In the foreword to Perry’s memoir, Lisa Kudrow described him as “whip smart, charming, sweet, sensitive, very reasonable, and rational.” She added, “That guy, with everything he was battling, was still there.”
An HBO Max reunion particular in 2021 was hosted by James Corden and fed into big curiosity in seeing the forged collectively once more, though this system consisted of the actors discussing the present and was not a continuation of their characters’ storylines.
Perry acquired one Emmy nomination for his “Friends” function and two extra for appearances as an affiliate White House counsel on “The West Wing.”
Perry additionally had a number of notable movie roles, starring reverse Salma Hayek within the rom-com “Fools Rush In” and Bruce Willis within the the crime comedy “The Whole Nine Yards.”
He labored constantly after “Friends,” although by no means in a job that introduced him as a lot consideration or acclaim.
In 2015, he performed Oscar for a CBS reboot of “The Odd Couple” that aired for 2 seasons. He instructed the AP that taking part in Oscar Madison, the character initially made well-known within the Sixties collection by Walter Matthau, was a “dream role.” He additionally mentioned he was stunned how a lot he loved being filmed once more in entrance of a reside viewers.
“I didn’t realize I missed it really until it actually happened, til we actually shot the pilot and there was a studio audience there and I realized, ‘Wow, I really like this. This is nice,’” he mentioned. “You kind of ham up for the people in the audience. My performance never got better than when there was an audience there.”
Perry was born Aug. 19, 1969, in Williamstown, Massachusetts. His father is actor John Bennett Perry and his mom, Suzanne, served as press secretary of Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and is married to “Dateline” correspondent Keith Morrison.
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Associated Press writers Alicia Rancilio, Janie Har, Hillel Italie, Ryan Pearson and Anthony McCartney contributed to this report.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”