Actor Matthew Perry, beloved star of the top-rated 1990s U.S. television sitcom “Friends” as the wise-cracking, pun loving & sarcastically hilarious Chandler Bing, died on Saturday after apparently drowning in a hot tub. He was 54. It was reported that the American-Canadian performer was found dead in a jacuzzi at his Los Angeles home. NBC, which broadcast “Friends” for 10 years, confirmed his demise in a statement on social media platform X. He starred as Chandler Bing on the NBC television sitcom Friends from 1994 to 2004, co-starring Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc and Lisa Kudrow. and won a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series for the role.
Perry also appeared on Ally McBeal (2002) and received Primetime Emmy Award nominations for his performances in The West Wing (2003) and The Ron Clark Story (2006). He gained a leading role in the NBC series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip which aired from 2006 to 2007. Perry also became known for his leading film roles in Fools Rush In (1997), Almost Heroes (1998), Three to Tango (1999), The Whole Nine Yards (2000), Serving Sara (2002), The Whole Ten Yards (2005), and 17 Again (2009). He voiced Benny in the video game Fallout: New Vegas (2010). Perry was co-creator, co-writer, executive producer, and star of the ABC sitcom Mr. Sunshine, which ran from February to April 2011.
In August 2012, he starred as sportscaster Ryan King on the NBC sitcom Go On. Perry co-developed and starred in a revival of the CBS sitcom The Odd Couple portraying Oscar Madison from 2015 to 2017. He had recurring roles in the legal dramas The Good Wife (2012–2013), and The Good Fight (2017). He portrayed Ted Kennedy in The Kennedys: After Camelot (2017) and appeared as himself in Friends: The Reunion (2021). Perry suffered from severe addictions to drugs and alcohol. Through his recovery, he became an advocate for rehabilitation and spokesperson for the National Association of Drug Court Professionals. In 2013, he received the Champion of Recovery Award from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. He wrote a memoir entitled Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing in 2022.
Perry was born in Williamstown, Massachusetts, on August 19, 1969. His mother, Suzanne Marie Morrison (née Langford, born 1948), is a Canadian journalist who was press secretary to Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. His father, John Bennett Perry (born 1941), is an American actor and former model. His parents separated when he was one year old, and his mother married Canadian broadcast journalist Keith Morrison. He was raised by his mother mostly in Ottawa, Ontario, but he also lived briefly in Toronto and Montreal. Perry practiced tennis, often for 10 hours per day and became a top-ranked junior player in Canada with the possibility of a tennis career. However, at age 15, he moved from Ottawa to Los Angeles to live with his father and competition there was tougher.