:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(749x0:751x2)/PEOPLE_MatthewPerry_tout-78bcbb778fbb4707a3ebfc4ae1cec146.jpg)
Matthew Perry appeared to be in a very good place. The beloved Friends star, who battled alcohol and drug addiction for decades, had moved into a newly renovated home overlooking the ocean in the L.A. neighborhood of Pacific Palisades. He’d also just signed on to star in a new drama film, Unworthy, and was toying around with an idea for a series featuring a Batman-esque character named Mattman. He was traveling with friends — including to the French Open in June — and playing pickleball almost every day. “He was having fun,” says a source close to him. “And he was incredibly happy.”
That promising future came to a devastating end on Oct. 28 when Perry was found dead at age 54 in a hot tub in the backyard of his home. The L.A. County Medical Examiner’s Office has not established the cause of death. According to reports, no illegal drugs were found at the scene, and no foul play was suspected; a toxicology report is pending following his autopsy.
“We are heartbroken by the tragic loss of our beloved son and brother,” his family told People in an exclusive statement. “Matthew brought so much joy to the world, both as an actor and a friend. You all meant so much to him, and we appreciate the tremendous outpouring of love.”
Nigel Parry/Trunk Archive
- For more about Matthew Perry, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.
Perry, who released his memoir Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing last year, was always candid about his struggles with addiction in hopes of helping others. With 15 rehab stints under his belt, he insisted that he’d mostly been sober since 2001 “with about 60 or 70 little mishaps over the years,” as he told People in September 2022.
He was a passionate advocate for treatment over incarceration for drug offenders and testified before a House subcommittee to help secure funding. According to a source, Perry was even in the process of establishing a foundation to further support those suffering from substance abuse.
“I’ve helped 100,000 people in a weekend, but I’ve also helped one guy. And it’s the same amount of juice that I get from it,” he said. “It doesn’t matter when you see the lights go on in somebody’s eyes who’s been hammered or on drugs for 10 years. That’s what makes your heart grow. And that’s a wonderful thing.” It also became a driving force in his life. “When I die, I don’t want Friends to be the first thing that’s mentioned,” he said on the Q With Tom Power podcast in November 2022. “I want [helping others] to be the first. And I’m gonna live the rest of my life proving that.”
And yet, of course, he also captured millions of hearts around the world with his era-defining show.
Reisig & Taylor/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty
In 1994 Friends launched as a simple sitcom about a sixsome figuring out life together over bottomless cups of coffee. Among the cast of Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer, Perry was the youngest at 24. His character, Chandler Bing, often was given the best punch lines because Perry had the skill to deliver them with both sharp timing and vulnerability.
Perry once said that his performance was so authentic because he too had the innate ability to mask pain and fill silence or discomfort with humor. When he read the script, “it was as if someone had followed me around for a year, stealing my jokes, copying my mannerisms, photocopying my world-weary yet witty view of life,” he wrote in his memoir. “It wasn’t that I thought I could play Chandler, I was Chandler.”
When the series ended 10 seasons later in 2004, it had become one of television’s highest-rated shows, and the cast’s salaries had soared to $1 million an episode. A hit in syndication and on streaming services even after its finale, the series “changed my life in every way,” Perry said. “The show ended when I was 34. It formed my life. And it was the time of my life.”
Jeff Lipsky/CPi Syndication
Born Aug. 19, 1969, in Williamstown, Mass., Matthew Langford Perry was the only child of Suzanne, a Canadian journalist and onetime press secretary to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, and John, a character actor known for his Old Spice commercials. After their divorce before he turned 1, Perry shuttled between them in Los Angeles and Ottawa for much of his youth. His mother married Dateline journalist Keith Morrison when Perry was around 10 and proceeded to have four more children: Caitlin, Emily, Will and Madeline.
Growing up in Canada, Perry trained to become a professional tennis player. Though nationally ranked by age 14, he moved to L.A. to live with his dad and stepmom, Debbie, along with their daughter Marie, the following year and quickly realized that his dream of turning pro was unlikely in the States.
Instead he tried his hand at acting in 1985, playing George Gibbs in Our Town at the private Buckley School. After landing guest spots on the sitcoms Charles in Charge and Silver Spoons, Perry became a regular on the 1987-88 Fox comedy Second Chance. His first big break in movies came when, at 16, he won a small role in A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon, starring River Phoenix. More TV roles followed, including a three-episode arc on Growing Pains in 1989 and a stint as Valerie Bertinelli’s younger brother on the sitcom Sydney.
But it was a guest role on the HBO comedy Dream On in 1992 that caught the attention of its creators, Marta Kauffman and David Crane. They remembered Perry when they were piecing together their next series, Six of One, which eventually became Friends. “When Matthew reads that dialogue, it sparkles and it comes alive,” Kauffman said in 2021.
Looking back, Perry described himself at that time as “just a guy desperate for fame. Just ‘on’ all the time. It wasn’t until my mid-thirties that I realized I don’t have to do that all the time, because, first of all, it’s probably annoying to people. But I thought being funny all the time was how I would get through. I thought it was going to fix everything. It didn’t. And the disease was just getting started right around then.”
He’d been drinking since he was a teen — then got hooked on opioids after a Jet Ski accident during the production of his 1997 film Fools Rush In. “I hadn’t had a pill before that,” he explained. “That first high from it was euphoria. And then I didn’t need to drink, which made you sweat and made you smell of alcohol.” At the height of his addiction, Perry was taking 55 Vicodin a day and dropped to 128 lbs.
Still, his career flourished. His most successful film, 2000’s The Whole Nine Yards, costarring Bruce Willis, grossed $100 million worldwide and led to a 2004 sequel. He earned an Emmy nomination for Friends in 2002 and two more for his work on The West Wing as a Republican lawyer. In 2007 he received his fourth Emmy nomination, for The Ron Clark Story, in which he portrayed a real-life teacher in the New York City public school system.
He followed a string of short-lived series—including 2006’s Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Mr. Sunshine in 2011 and 2012’s Go On—with three seasons of The Odd Couple, a reboot of the classic 1970s comedy, alongside Thomas Lennon and Wendell Pierce. “He was smart, funny and so very kind,” says Pierce.
Perry also guest-starred as a politician in 2012 on The Good Wife and its 2017 spinoff The Good Fight. In between, he wrote the play The End of Longing and starred in it as an embellished version of himself, a lost soul who drinks his life away.
“After Friends and getting typecast as Chandler, what I tried to do for about 10 years was play against that and do some drama work and had some success in that,” he said. “And then I realized there’s no getting away from [Friends]. People still love it as much as they loved it a long time ago.”
Jeff Lipsky/CPi Syndication
Even as he continued acting, Perry was still fighting his demons. When he was 49, he was hospitalized for five months after his colon burst following years of opioid abuse. The ordeal left him even more determined to support others. After 14 surgeries on his stomach, he saw his scars as a blessing. “That’s a lot of reminders to stay sober,” he said.
Another reason: He told People in 2022 that he had been inspired to stop drinking after having what he called a religious experience in his kitchen when he sensed God. “There was just this light,” he recalled. “The kitchen disappeared, and I felt loved and understood. . . . Maybe when you die, it’s not the end. I hope that’s the case.”
Perry was open to the notion of falling in love again. While his past girlfriends included Julia Roberts, the actor — who was briefly engaged in 2020 to literary manager Molly Hurwitz — insisted he was “not afraid” of letting his guard down anymore. “Through a lot of work I’ve gotten over that fear,” he said in 2022. He also looked forward to having kids someday. As a dad, “I think I’d be great. I really do,” he added. “I grew up with a lot of little kids around me, and that’s probably why, but I can’t wait.”
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
His journey in life—though dark at times—made the actor stronger “in every way,” he said, and he truly believed “everything happened for a reason.”
At his new home, which he called “heaven” to friends, Perry was most drawn to the breathtaking view. “When I was 5 years old, my parents put me on a plane alone from Montreal to Los Angeles. And I was terrified, my feet didn't even touch the floor,” he explained. “And then when I saw the lights of the city, I knew we were landing and my dad was going to be there and I'd be parented again. That’s why views of the ocean or city lights have always given me a feeling of safety.”
One can only hope that in his final hours, Perry looked out again at the vista before him and felt safe—and loved—one last time.
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, please contact the SAMHSA helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.
With reporting by Eric Andersson, JP Mangalindan and Mia McNiece
"lasting" - Google News
October 31, 2023 at 09:00PM
https://ift.tt/LN6sBFI
Matthew Perry's Lasting Legacy: How He Won Our Hearts and Found a Mission Helping Others with Addiction - PEOPLE
"lasting" - Google News
https://ift.tt/iS9B08q
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Matthew Perry's Lasting Legacy: How He Won Our Hearts and Found a Mission Helping Others with Addiction - PEOPLE"
Post a Comment