Matthew Perry, best known for his role as Chandler Bing on the 1990s NBC sitcom “Friends,” has died at the age of 54.
No foul play is suspected and it was initially a water rescue, law enforcement sources told NBC News.
Millions of people across the country and around the world welcomed Perry into their homes through the television screen as he played the funny and lovable character Chandler Bing, one of the six main characters in “Friends.”
Friends ran for ten seasons in the 1990s to early 2000s and has become one of the most popular and iconic series of all time, still broadcast worldwide.
The show focused on a group of six friends living in New York City. Perry’s character Chandler was roommates with Joey (played by Matt LeBlanc) and at times Ross (played by David Schwimmer). The boys lived across from Rachel (played by Jennifer Aniston) and Monica (played by Courteney Cox), who eventually became Chandler’s wife.
Alongside Lisa Kudrow, who played her eccentric friend Phoebe, the six leads formed a cast with one of the strongest connections in television history.
Perry spoke about the closeness of the core cast during the series’ 2021 reunion special.
“After the show ended at a party or other social gathering and one of us met, that was the end of the night. You just sat with the person all night,” Perry said, according to TODAY.
During its run, “Friends” was nominated for 62 Primetime Emmy Awards and was at one point the most-watched show on television at a time when Nielson ratings were crucial.
Perry himself was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series in 2002 for his role in the series. In total, Perry received five Emmy nominations throughout his career, including for his guest role on “The West Wing” and “The West Wing.” Lead role in the television film “The Ron Clark Story”.
His most recent Emmy nomination was in 2021 for his role in “Friends: The Reunion,” streaming on HBO Max, in which Perry, along with his co-stars, commemorated the series beloved by so many.
The reunion special was, in part, a recognition of the series’ continued success and popularity more than 15 years after its initial television airing, largely due to its presence on streaming services such as Netflix and HBO Max.
In 2022, Perry wrote a memoir about his past struggles with addiction and substance abuse.
Under the title “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing,” Perry described his lifelong battle with alcohol and drug addiction.
Perry wrote that his struggle with sobriety began when he was on the cast of “Friends,” where he struggled with alcohol addiction and was at one point taking 55 Vicodin a day.
During his time on “Friends,” he wrote in his memoir, “there were years” when he was sober. “Season nine was the year I was sober the whole time,” he recalled. “And guess which season I was nominated for Best Actor? I thought, ‘That should tell me something.'”
But the star’s worst times came in 2018, when Perry wrote that he was given a two percent chance of survival by doctors after his colon ruptured from excessive opioid use and he ended up in a coma for two weeks and in the hospital for five months spent.
Perry was born in Massachusetts and spent his childhood between Montreal and Los Angeles, with his father working as an actor and his mother working in Canada, where she once served as press secretary to Canadian Prime Minister Piere Trudeau, according to the LA Times.
In his later years as an actor, Perry took on starring roles in a number of television sitcoms, including the revival of “The Odd Couple,” which ran for three seasons on CBS.
For his role, Perry was nominated twice for the People’s Choice Award for Favorite Comedy TV Actor.
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