Matthew Langford Perry was an actor most known for his role on the hit television series “Friends” as Chandler Bing. He has also appeared in films such as “17 Again,” “Fools Rush In” and “The Ron Clark Story.” He passed away on the night of October 23, 2023.
After 54 years of life, including 29 years of a successful acting career and many years of drug and alcohol recovery, he said he was, according to model and friend Athenna Crosby, “actually doing really good.”
According to his autobiography, Perry struggled with alcohol and hard drug use from the ages of eight and eleven, respectively. However, in the more recent years of his life, he has gone to rehab multiple times to get better, and just two years ago finally got clean. In those years of sobriety, he wrote an autobiography, made plans to have a documentary made about his life and to launch a drug-abuse support organization.
Crosby commented on Perry’s friendship in an Instagram post after he died, saying “… he was an extremely private person and I always respected that in our friendship. But I was indeed his friend.”
Fellow “Friends” co-stars Jennifer Anniston, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow and Courtney Cox made a collective statement to “People” magazine, saying, “We are all so utterly devastated by the loss of Matthew. We were more than just cast mates. We are a family”
Perry himself spoke very fondly of his co-stars before he died. During the show’s run, he struggled majorly with his addictions, and said, “In nature, when a penguin is injured, the other penguins group around it and prop it up until it’s better… This is what my co-stars on ‘Friends’ did for me.”
Perry was found dead in his hot tub. Reports say there was a call from his phone about a heart attack the previous night. Results are currently pending on the cause of Perry’s death.