Celebs
The actor was discovered lifeless of an obvious drowning at his Los Angeles residence Saturday, in accordance with the Los Angeles Occasions and celeb web site TMZ.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — “Associates” star Matthew Perry, the Emmy-nominated actor whose sarcastic, however lovable Chandler Bing was amongst tv’s most well-known and most quotable characters, has died at 54.
The actor was discovered lifeless of an obvious drowning at his Los Angeles residence Saturday, in accordance with the Los Angeles Occasions and celeb web site TMZ, which was the primary to report the information. Each shops cited unnamed sources confirming Perry’s loss of life.
“Matthew was an extremely gifted actor and an indelible a part of the Warner Bros. Tv Group household,” the corporate stated in an announcement. “The impression of his comedic genius was felt all over the world, and his legacy will dwell on within the hearts of so many. This can be a heartbreaking day, and we ship our like to his household, his family members, and all of his devoted followers.”
Perry’s publicists and different representatives didn’t instantly reply to messages from The Related Press in search of remark.
Requested to verify police response to what was listed as Perry’s residence handle, LAPD Officer Drake Madison advised the AP that officers had gone to that block “for a loss of life investigation of a male in his 50s.”
Perry’s 10 seasons on “Associates” made him certainly one of Hollywood’s most recognizable actors, starring reverse Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow and David Schwimmer as a buddy group in New York.
As Chandler, he performed the quick-witted, insecure and neurotic roommate of LeBlanc’s Joey and a detailed buddy of Schwimmer’s Ross. Throughout the present’s hijinks, he might be counted on to chime in with a line like “May this BE any extra awkward?” or one other well-timed quip.
Perry was open about his lengthy and public wrestle with habit, writing initially of his 2022 million-selling memoir: “Hello, my title is Matthew, though chances are you’ll know me by one other title. My associates name me Matty. And I must be lifeless.”
“Associates” ran from 1994 till 2004, profitable one greatest comedy sequence Emmy Award in 2002. The forged notably banded collectively for later seasons to acquire a wage of $1 million per episode for every.
By the “Associates” finale, Chandler is married to Cox’s Monica and so they have a household, reflecting the journey of the core forged from single New Yorkers attempting to determine their lives out to a number of of them married and beginning households.
The sequence was certainly one of tv’s largest hits and has taken on a brand new life — and located shocking reputation with youthful followers — lately on streaming providers.
Perry described studying the “Associates” script for the primary time in his memoir, “Associates, Lovers and the Huge Horrible Factor.”
“It was as if somebody had adopted me round for a 12 months, stealing my jokes, copying my mannerisms, photocopying my world-weary but witty view of life. One character specifically stood out to me: it wasn’t that I assumed I may ‘play’ Chandler. I ‘was’ Chandler.”
Unknown on the time was the wrestle Perry had with habit and an intense want to please audiences.
“’Associates’ was enormous. I couldn’t jeopardize that. I liked the script. I liked my co-actors. I liked the scripts. I liked every part in regards to the present however I used to be battling my addictions which solely added to my sense of disgrace,” he wrote in his memoir. “I had a secret and nobody may know.”
“I felt like I used to be gonna die if the dwell viewers didn’t snicker, and that’s not wholesome for certain. However I may typically say a line and the viewers wouldn’t snicker and I might sweat and typically go into convulsions,” Perry wrote. “If I didn’t get the snicker I used to be purported to get I might freak out. I felt that each single night time. This strain left me in a nasty place. I additionally knew of the six folks making that present, solely certainly one of them was sick.”
He recalled in his memoir that Aniston confronted him about being inebriated whereas filming.
“I do know you’re ingesting,” he remembered her telling him as soon as. “We will scent it,” she stated, in what Perry known as a “type of bizarre however loving manner, and the plural ‘we’ hit me like a sledgehammer.”
Within the foreword to Perry’s memoir, Lisa Kudrow described him as “whip good, charming, candy, delicate, very affordable, and rational.” She added, “That man, with every part he was battling, was nonetheless there.”
An HBO Max reunion particular in 2021 was hosted by James Corden and fed into enormous curiosity in seeing the forged collectively once more, though this system consisted of the actors discussing the present and was not a continuation of their characters’ storylines.
Perry obtained one Emmy nomination for his “Associates” position and two extra for appearances as an affiliate White Home counsel on “The West Wing.”
Perry additionally had a number of notable movie roles, starring reverse Salma Hayek within the rom-com “Fools Rush In” and Bruce Willis within the the crime comedy “The Entire 9 Yards.”
He labored constantly after “Associates,” although by no means in a job that introduced him as a lot consideration or acclaim.
In 2015, he performed Oscar for a CBS reboot of “The Odd Couple” that aired for 2 seasons. He advised the AP that enjoying Oscar Madison, the character initially made well-known within the Nineteen Sixties sequence by Walter Matthau, was a “dream position.” He additionally stated he was stunned how a lot he loved being filmed once more in entrance of a dwell viewers.
“I didn’t understand I missed it actually till it truly occurred, til we truly shot the pilot and there was a studio viewers there and I spotted, ‘Wow, I actually like this. That is good,’” he stated. “You type of ham up for the folks within the viewers. My efficiency by no means obtained higher than when there was an viewers there.”
Perry was born Aug. 19, 1969, in Williamstown, Massachusetts. His father is actor John Bennett Perry and his mom, Suzanne, served as press secretary of Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and is married to “Dateline” correspondent Keith Morrison.
___
Related Press writers Alicia Rancilio, Janie Har, Hillel Italie, Ryan Pearson and Anthony McCartney contributed to this report.
