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Tom Selleck remembers Matthew Perry and the time he spent with the actor on the set of Friends.
Selleck appeared in the second season of the sitcom in the recurring role of ophthalmologist Richard Burke, who is in love with Courteney Cox's Monica Geller. The actor recalled being on the set of the series and reaching out to Perry and talking about his father, as Selleck had a friendship with John Bennett Perry.
“Everyone couldn’t have been nicer to me,” Selleck said in an interview with USA Today. “But every day I would see Matthew and ask him, 'How is your dad?' And he was always smiling and we got along. I met his father when I was a young, struggling actor. Almost every commercial or pilot I've been on has had John. We became really good friends.”
Selleck has fond memories of the cast of Perry and the Friends and remembers filming the episode titled “The One Where Old Yeller Dies,” in which Joey (Matt LeBlanc) and Chandler (Perry) became Selleck's Richard transform and vice versa.
“[Perry] “I walked on set and it brought the house down,” Selleck recalled as Perry delivered Richard's line, saying, “Nice mustache, by the way. When puberty hits, that's when things really start to take off.”
Selleck added: “He was a real talent. Matthew is dead, so it's easy to say that, but it's true. I think he was the most talented of a very talented group of people.”
According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Office, Perry died at his home on October 28, 2023 from “acute effects of ketamine.” The cast of Friends gathered for a memorial service honoring Perry, to which Selleck was invited but was unable to attend.
It's the bond between the cast that Selleck remembers most from his time on the set of Friends.
“There are no bad stories. No star stuff. There’s nothing like that there,” recalls Selleck. “You sat down to take notes on the rehearsal and it was fascinating. Courteney would sit on someone's lap, and then next time, someone else's. They all just got along. I think it's because all of these actors have had failures on other shows. And now they're in this hit. They all realized how lucky they were.”