Canadian actor and Friends star Matthew Perry dead at 54: Report

0 116

‘I felt like I was gonna die if the live audience didn’t laugh, and that’s not healthy for sure,’ Emmy nominee wrote in autobiography last year

Article content

LOS ANGELES  — Matthew Perry, who starred as Chandler Bing in the hit series Friends, has died. He was 54.

The Emmy-nominated actor was found dead of an apparent drowning at his Los Angeles home Saturday, according to the Los Angeles Times and celebrity website TMZ, which was the first to report the news. Both outlets cited unnamed sources confirming Perry’s death.

Article content

His publicists and other representatives did not immediately respond to messages from The Associated Press seeking comment. Asked to confirm police response to what was listed as Perry’s home address, LAPD Officer Drake Madison told AP that officers had gone to that block “for a death investigation of a male in his 50s.”

Advertisement 2

Article content

Perry’s 10 seasons on Friends made him one of Hollywood’s most recognizable actors, starring opposite Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow and David Schwimmer as a friend group in New York.

As Chandler, he played the quick-witted, insecure and neurotic roommate of LeBlanc’s Joey and a close friend of Schwimmer’s Ross. By the series’ end, Chandler is married to Cox’s Monica and they have a family, reflecting the journey of the core cast from single New Yorkers to married and starting families.

The cast of hit NBC sitcom, clockwise from left: Courtney Cox, Matthew Perry, Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc, and Lisa Kudrow
The cast of hit NBC sitcom, clockwise from left: Courtney Cox, Matthew Perry, Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc, and Lisa Kudrow

The series was one of television’s biggest hits and has taken on a new life — and found surprising popularity with younger fans — in recent years on streaming services.

Friends ran from 1994 until 2004, and the cast notably banded together for later seasons to obtain a salary of $1 million per episode for each.

Article content

Advertisement 3

Article content

Unknown at the time was the struggle Perry had with addiction and an intense desire 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, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing. “I had a secret and no one could know.”

Perry wrote, “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. 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.”

Advertisement 4

Article content

An HBO Max reunion special in 2021 was hosted by James Corden and fed into huge interest in seeing the cast together again, although the program consisted of the actors discussing the show and was not a continuation of their characters’ storylines.

Perry received one Emmy nomination for his Friends role and two more for appearances as an associate White House counsel on The West Wing.

Perry also had several notable film roles, starring opposite Salma Hayek in the rom-com Fools Rush In and opposite Bruce Willis in the the crime comedy The Whole Nine Yards.

Recommended from Editorial

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Article content

Comments

Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion and encourage all readers to share their views on our articles. Comments may take up to an hour for moderation before appearing on the site. We ask you to keep your comments relevant and respectful. We have enabled email notifications—you will now receive an email if you receive a reply to your comment, there is an update to a comment thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information and details on how to adjust your email settings.

    Advertisement 1

Source link

Denial of responsibility! YoursTelecast is an automatic aggregator of the all world’s media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials, please contact us by email – [email protected]. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.
Leave A Reply

Your email address will not be published.