Matthew Perry, Chandler Bing On 'Friends', Has Died At 54
The actor also starred in 'Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip' and in 'The Whole Nine Yards'
Matthew Perry, who starred for ten seasons as Chandler Bing on the NBC sitcom Friends, died Saturday at the age of 54. According to TMZ, who was first to break the news, he was found to have drowned.
They relayed from sources that first-responders rushed over on a call for cardiac arrest. “It’s unclear where exactly on the grounds this happened. He was found in a jacuzzi at the home, and we’re told there were no drugs found at the scene. We’re also told there is no foul play involved.” They were unable to revive him.
Matthew Langford Perry was born August 19, 1969 in Williamstown Massachusetts to actor John Bennett Perry and Suzanne Marie Morrison, a Canadian journalist who served as Press Secretary to former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. Making his TV debut in a 1979 episode of 240-Robert, Perry’s subsequent guest roles included Not Necessarily the News, Charles in Charge, and Silver Spoons. His first series regular role was on a series called Second Chance, where he played Charles “Chazz” Russell, given a new opportunity after death to make better choices in his younger years so he could get a better afterlife. Except after 9 episodes, it was retooled during a hiatus and became Boys Will Be Boys about Chazz’s antics with his two buddies. That format lasted 12 episodes before cancellation. A three episode 1989 arc on Growing Pains had him in the role of Sandy, Carol Seaver's boyfriend who dies in the hospital after a drunk-driving crash. His last two series regular roles before Friends was as Billy Kells on Sydney, a Valerie Bertinelli-starring CBS sitcom in 1990, and as Matt Bailey on 1993’s Home Free, which also featured Anndi McAfee, Dan Schneider (yes that one) and Alan Oppenheimer.
Starring on Friends allowed him to build something of a film career, with such titles as Fools Rush In with Salma Hayek, The Whole Nine Yards, its sequel The Whole Ten Yards, and 17 Again with Zac Efron. He was also a hidden character in the NBA Hangtime video game. Following Friends, his subsequent series regular roles were Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Mr. Sunshine, and Go On, which each lasted for a single season. His iteration of The Odd Couple which paired him with Thomas Lennon lasted for three seasons on CBS. His biggest recurring role in the last 20 years of his career was as Mike Kresteva in four episodes of The Good Wife and three of its spin-off The Good Fight. He also guested on Cougar Town and Web Therapy, shows starring castmates Courteney Cox and Lisa Kudrow.
Perry struggled with drugs and alcohol, and was open about it. In his memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, which was released just last year, he revealed that his drinking began at the age of 14. A Vicodin addiction developed in 1997 after a jet-ski accident. In 2016 he told that he no longer remembered filming seasons 3-6 of Friends. In 2018 he was hospitalized for five months with a burst colon due to OxyContin abuse. "The doctors told my family that I had a 2 percent chance to live," he told. "I was put on a thing called an ECMO machine, which does all the breathing for your heart and your lungs. And that's called a Hail Mary. No one survives that."
His ten seasons as Chandler Bing on the NBC sitcom included an Emmy nomination, with two for guest starring as Joe Quincy on The West Wing. His fourth Emmy nomination was for starring as Ron Clark in TNT's 2006 television film The Ron Clark Story and another for serving as executive producer of the Friends: The Reunion special in 2021, which he directly partook in and was released on HBO Max.
