Matthew Perry (1969–2023): Most of the time, life may seem ironic. One of the most terrible lives in real life belonged to a man who, via his role on a beloved show, brought laughter to millions of people worldwide. Actor Matthew Perry, who turned Friends’ Chandler Bing into one of the show’s most recognizable characters worldwide, has passed away. On Saturday, Perry’s body was discovered at his Los Angeles residence. An early inquiry revealed that the star had drowned in his LA home’s hot tub. Any form of foul play has been ruled out by the police. 54 was his age.
Perry was already well-known on television when he was contacted to portray Chandler Bing in the hit television series Friends by Marta Kauffman and David Crane in the early 1990s. According to a number of stories, he was the only actor, at the age of 24, to be cast as the sardonic, insecure Chandler Bing and the only one who had not gone through the audition process.
Friends and the early years of Matthew Perry’s fame
The television series Friends is renowned for turning its six major actors—Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer, Matt Le Blanc, Lisa Kudrow, and Perry—into instant celebrities. Their appeal extended beyond the United States to other countries as well. Friends ran for ten successful seasons. When the show’s final season eventually aired in 2004, it caused global sadness as viewers said a heartfelt goodbye to their cherished fictional pals. Like no other show, Friends captivated the audience’s imagination. The six performers gave their roles famous roles. Perry embodied Chandler Bing so perfectly in the role that it seemed to be a continuation of his own nature. There were parallels. Like Chandler’s one-liners on screen, Perry was a stand-up comedian noted for his sardonic repartees off-screen. Like his character Chandler, Perry experienced years of mental health problems as a result of coming from a broken family.
The Difficult Years of Addiction
He said in his 2022 memoir Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir that even though he became extremely successful with the sitcom Friends, he could not force himself to watch it since it brought back painful memories of his addiction. Following a jet-ski accident in 1997, Perry developed a first addiction to Vicodin and underwent a 28-day detox regimen. Dedicated Friends watchers will remember that he changed weight throughout the course of the season. Many others also attribute Perry’s addiction to his hard-partying days.
In later years, pancreatitis caused his weight to plummet to 145 pounds (66 kg). Due to his addiction to alcohol, methadone, amphetamines, and Vicodin, he checked himself into treatment in February 2001. Perry eventually calculated that the cost of his sobriety was $9 million. He had also said that, as a result of his addiction, he was unable to recall the three years he spent performing on Friends between seasons three and six.
Mental illness, rehab, and other things of Matthew Perry
Perry also remembers feeling alone despite his popularity and notoriety from Friends. “Fame was burning brightly for me. The six of us were constantly in motion. It would have appeared to an outsider that I had it all. Actually, because I was an alcoholic, it was a really lonely period for me. It’s a progressive sickness, but it existed before Friends. I was never much of a party animal. I didn’t drink in the same way as a bull in a china shop,” the actor later recounted.
In between his first two rehab stays in 1997 and 2001, Perry experimented with a serious and lucrative acting career. At the height of her success, Friends was in development, and Perry was starring in many feature pictures. Perry ended up losing twenty pounds and spending two weeks in the hospital due to severe pancreatitis in between his first and second trips to rehab. According to reports, abusing prescription drugs and alcohol together might lead to this illness.
His romantic life was also in danger due to his addiction. Perry has dated Lizzy Caplan from 2006 to 2012, Julia Roberts from 1995 to 1996, and Yasmine Bleeth in 1995. Perry proposed to Molly Hurwitz, a literary manager, in November 2020. The couple’s engagement came to an end in 2021. Although the reason for his breakups with each of his partners was never publicly acknowledged, there were strong speculations that his loved ones blamed his addiction for the breakdowns in each of his relationships.
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