'Friends' Star Matthew Perry Dies at 54

Actor Matthew Perry, who delighted TV audiences as lovable, sarcastic Chandler Bing in the Emmy-winning smash hit Friends, has died. He was 54.

 The actor was found dead at his Los Angeles home, according to coroner's records obtained by the Associated Press. An investigation into how Perry died is ongoing, and it may take weeks before his cause of death is determined.

Perry's body was found in a hot tub at his home, according to unnamed sources cited by the Los Angeles Times and celebrity website TMZ, which was the first to report the news. LAPD Officer Drake Madison told The Associated Press on Saturday that officers had gone to that block “for a death investigation of a male in his 50s.”

Reaction poured in from around the world as news reports of Perry’s death surfaced.

Warner Bros. TV, which produced Friends, told Deadline in a statement, “We are devastated by the passing of our dear friend Matthew Perry. Matthew was an incredibly gifted actor. ... The impact of his comedic genius was felt around the world, and his legacy will live on in the hearts of so many.”

Actress Natasha Henstridge, who costarred with Perry in The Whole Nine Yards, posted a tribute to Perry on Instagram stories, writing: “You gorgeous man. You have brought so much laughter and love to this world. You’ll be forever missed and forever remembered.”

“I’m heartbroken about the untimely death of my ‘son,’” Morgan Fairchild, who played Chandler’s mom on Friends, wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “The loss of such a brilliant young actor is a shock.”

Actress Maggie Wheeler, Chandler’s girlfriend Janice on the show, wrote on Instagram, “What a loss. … The joy you brought to so many in your too short lifetime will live on. I feel so very blessed by every creative moment we shared.”

And Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who went to school with Perry when he was growing up in Ottawa, posted on X that his friend’s passing was “shocking and saddening. I’ll never forget the schoolyard games we used to play. … Thanks for all the laughs, Matthew. You were loved — and you will be missed.”

The official Friends Instagram account noted, “He was a true gift to us all. Our heart goes out to his family, loved ones, and all of his fans.”

Perry was one of six main cast members on the sitcom (1994-2004), along with Jennifer Aniston, 54, Courteney Cox, 59, Matt LeBlanc, 56, Lisa Kudrow, 60, and David Schwimmer, 56. They played a group of young people living their best lives in remarkably large (considering their apparent lack of lucrative work) apartments in New York City and the Central Perk coffee shop. Chandler would eventually marry Cox’s character, Monica, as the audience watched the group grow up through the decade it aired.

The show was wildly popular, drawing 52.5 million viewers to its finale on May 6, 2004, when the cast members were each earning $1 million an episode. It’s also attracted a new younger audience on streaming services in more recent years, as well as a slew of tributes on its 25th anniversary in 2019. Praising its simple pleasures — while also acknowledging its lack of diversity — Wesley Morris wrote in The New York Times, “the show was an oasis: adult women hanging out with adult men, with no monsters to fear, run from or prosecute.”

But Perry had his own personal monsters, and there was an overlap between his character and his own insecurities. He was traumatized in childhood when his father abandoned him and his mother to be an actor in California, and while his character Chandler's estrangement from his dad was fictional, Perry was highly convincing as a troubled son. Chandler's discomfort with life drew on his own real neuroses: when he failed to get a laugh from the live audience at a Friends taping, he said on the 2021 reunion show, "I would sweat and just go into convulsions if I didn't get the laugh I was supposed to get."

Chandler's sarcasm was a defense against similar demons of self-doubt, and he delivered lines like "What's wrong with me? Ooh, don't open that door!" and "I'm your uncle Chandler — funny is all I have" with authority as well as technical expertise.

He dedicated his 2022 memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing to “all of the sufferers out there. You know who you are."

He turned one of his homes into the Perry House in Malibu, a sober-living facility for men, in 2013, when he told People that helping others helped him find "true happiness. ... The interesting reason that I can be so helpful to people now is that I screwed up so often. … It's nice for people to see that somebody who once struggled in their life is not struggling any more."

Perry continued to advocate for people with addiction problems, and for the justice system to focus more on treatment than incarceration for drug offenses.

But he also continued to battle addiction, he wrote, until nearly dying at age 49, when his colon burst due to his opioid abuse, compelling him to sobriety.

Perry was born in Williamstown, Massachusetts to Canadian journalist Suzanne Marie and actor John Bennett Perry (1996's Independence Day, and 1997's George of the Jungle, among many others).

He grew up in Ottawa, Ontario, a junior tennis prodigy who opted for acting over college when offered a role in the short-lived (1987-88) TV series Boys Will be Boys. He played River Phoenix's best friend in 1988's A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon, and starred in shows such as Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Mr. Sunshine, Go On, and The Odd Couple, and films including 2008’s Birds of America and the TV movie The Ron Clark Story, for which he received an Emmy nomination.

He was also nominated for a Primetime Emmy four other times: once each for his role on Friends and the Friends reunion episode in 2021, and twice for his guest role on The West Wing, where he appeared as Republican lawyer Joe Quincy. 

Perry was not married, and he did not have any children.