Last night it was claimed that Friends star Matthew Perry may have fallen back into drug abuse and was unusually tired in the final days of his life.
The troubled actor died Saturday night at the age of 54 in an apparent drowning accident in the hot tub in the backyard of his Los Angeles home.
As police sources said they found numerous prescription painkillers and anti-anxiety pills in his home, a close friend reported there were worrying signs of “fatigue” in the days before his death.
Perry was obsessed with playing pickleball – a game similar to tennis and table tennis – but was said to have walked home early from a game at a country club near his home just hours before he was discovered, complaining of fatigue have complained.
Although Perry normally played the game twice a day, on Saturday he had only lasted an hour on the pitch before heading home, his regular partner told TV host Billy Bush.
Perry posted a picture of himself in some sort of pool or hot tub on Oct. 23 with the caption, “Oh so warm water swirling around makes you feel good? I’m Mattman.”
Police sources said they found numerous prescription painkillers and anti-anxiety pills at his home
Perry’s stepfather Keith Morrison crosses the police line down the street from the late actor’s home in Pacific Palisades on Saturday evening
Perry plays pickleball on October 22nd in Santa Monica
‘[Pickleball] “Regulated his days,” Bush said. “I spoke to the woman he played with this morning and every morning.” She’s in shock, idolized Matt… she said he was tired today and for the last week. A little more than usual.’
Friends claim Perry has been in good shape in recent weeks and believes he is managing to stay sober.
While police said they did not find any illegal drugs at his home, sources told the website TMZ that they discovered a stash of prescription medications, including antidepressants, anti-anxiety medications and a medication for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and breathing problems such as emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Perry had been a smoker.
Sources close to his Friends co-star Lisa Kudrow said she was “stunned” by his death after he finally found “peace with himself.” She promised to attend his funeral and perhaps even adopt his beloved dog Alfred.
“He was enjoying life,” a close source told . “He was closer to his parents than ever and was actively committed to his sobriety. “She’s not sure what caused his death.”
One possibility that is reportedly worrying the actress and other friends of Perry is that he may have taken a medication that reacted badly to the heat of the hot tub.
“While no one wants to believe it was medication – prescribed or not – that is of course a thought in their mind,” the source added.
“They think he must have taken something that didn’t mix with the warm water.”
Only a toxicology report, which could take months, will determine the precise role his addiction played in his death and whether, as friends fear, he may have gone off the rails.
Police sources said they found numerous prescription painkillers and anti-anxiety pills at Friends star Matthew Perry’s home
One of the last pictures of Perry going to dinner with his friend at the Apple Pan burger joint in Los Angeles
Perry (pictured circa 1987 in New York) was found lifeless in his hot tub at his £5.6million mansion in the chic Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles on Saturday afternoon
Perry as Chandler in Season 6 of Friends “The One on the Last Night”
Perry was found lifeless in his hot tub at his £5.6million mansion in the chic Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles on Saturday afternoon.
After playing pickleball, he reportedly asked his assistant to pick up a new iPhone and prescription glasses for him. Two hours later, the assistant returned to his house to find him unresponsive in his hot tub. He called emergency services and then his mother and a sibling. Police said they did not suspect foul play but did not provide a cause of death.
His parents, Suzanne Morrison and actor John Bennett Perry, and his stepfather, television crime reporter Keith Morrison, arrived at the house that evening, ashen-faced.
In a short statement, the family said: “We are heartbroken at the tragic loss of our beloved son and brother.” Matthew has brought so much joy to the world as both an actor and a friend.
“You all meant so much to him and we appreciate the tremendous love that has flowed his way.”
Tributes also came from the creators of “Friends,” who called the day “The Day Our Hearts Broke,” in a touching nod to the show’s iconic episode titles.
The sitcom’s co-creators Marta Kauffman and David Crane, along with executive producer Kevin Bright, said they were “shocked and deeply saddened” by Perry’s death.
They added: “It still seems impossible.” All we can say is that we feel blessed to have had him in our lives. “He was a brilliant talent.”
Gwyneth Paltrow also revealed that the couple kissed “in a field of tall grass” the summer before the Friends pilot aired in 1993 – and Perry’s life changed forever.
The Sliding Doors star said: “He was so funny and so sweet and so much fun to be around.” We went out to swim in creeks, drank beers at the local college bar and kissed in a field with tall grass.
“It was a magical summer. He was nervous and hopeful that his big break was imminent. It was.’
Neighbors described Perry as friendly and approachable. He had this reputation in Hollywood, an actor who, by his own admission, was remarkably similar to Chandler, the sarcastic but reserved character he played in Friends.
However, he openly admitted that he had kept his true self under wraps for a long time for fear that it would repel others. Fans of “Friends” only learned years later that the prickly-haired Chandler they saw and loved every week often showed up to tape the show with a severe hangover (in 2016, he admitted that he actually couldn’t remember to have filmed three seasons of the show because he had a “back then I didn’t have much of it.”).
Perry’s mother Suzanne and her husband Keith Morrison were seen leaving his Pacific Palisades home following his tragic death
He also said he had therapy twice a week for 30 years and attended 6,000 Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. Although none of it did much good as he ignored his doctors and viewed detox as “hell.”
Conscious of his self-destructive reputation, he wrote in his autobiography last year: “It is very strange to live in a world where a death would shock people but surprise no one.”
In his last interview in April, while speaking at a book festival in LA, he was asked how he wanted to be remembered. He didn’t mention friends, but instead replied, “As a man who lived life, loved life well, lived well, and helped people. That it happened to me was a good thing and not a bad thing.”
He was similarly optimistic in 2022, joking to People magazine: “I’m pretty healthy now.” “I don’t have to go to the gym much anymore because I don’t just want to be able to play superheroes.” He refused how long he had been sober, but said he waited to publish his book until “I was safe from the dark side of everything again.” He added: “I had to wait until I was reasonably sober – and free of the active disease of alcoholism and addiction – to write it all down.”
But how safe was he from the dark side? Just when the smile Perry flashed for the cameras in his rare public appearances hid the fact that those gleaming white teeth were fake (since the real ones had fallen out when he bit into a slice of toast), it seemed as if he had been a man , who was still struggling with his teeth demons.
Aside from his pickleball commitments, his public appearances have been rare in recent months. The Saturday before his death, he was caught at a burger joint with a male friend, shabbily dressed in sweatpants, laceless sneakers and an oversized T-shirt.
His social media posts were erratic. In his latest post on Instagram earlier this week, the star shared pictures of himself in his pool and said, “Oh, such warm water swirling around makes you feel good? ‘I’m Mattman.’
He seemed happier two weeks ago when he posted a picture of himself with his father, fellow actor John Bennett Perry, 82.
“Here is me and my dad John, both holding a drink,” he wrote on Instagram alongside the photo of the two smiling at the camera while holding cups of what looks like Coca-Cola Hold hands.
Lisa Kudrow, who played Phoebe on Friends, said last year that Perry’s addiction was “a hideous disease and he has a severe version of it.” The actress added: “What doesn’t change is his will to keep going, keep fighting and keep living.”
It is now up to the coroner to reveal how successfully Matthew Perry took this fight to the end.