Matthew Perry, an actor known for his role as Chandler on the TV show “Friends,” died on Oct. 28, 2023. He passed due to a sudden heart attack in his bathtub. He was only 54. Perry once stated in an interview that when he died, “everyone would be shocked but not surprised.” His death broke hearts across the country.
Many remember him for playing Chandler Bing in “Friends,” but not many know the rest of his story. Beyond “Friends,” one aspect of his life stands out: Perry won a lifelong battle with drug/alcohol addiction.
Matthew Perry’s early life explains many of the problems he faced later on. He was born in Massachusetts, where his parents got divorced when he was only one year old. As a child, he often felt like he had to beg for his parents’ attention, and as a result, constantly felt lonely. Perry had his first experience with drugs when he was only a few weeks old. Despite this, Perry does not blame his parents for his later struggle with addiction.
Perry first became addicted to drugs after a jet ski accident in 1997. He was severely injured and was prescribed Vicodin. His use of Vicodin as a painkiller quickly turned to addiction, which then led to alcohol abuse, and in 2000 he was hospitalized due to pancreatitis (due to alcoholism). In his memoir, Perry admits to almost losing his life to drugs in 2019, confiding in an interview, “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.”
After many struggles, Matthew Perry achieved sobriety. Once he was sober, Perry had one other goal in life, and that was to help others achieve sobriety.
“The best thing about me is that I can help people if they ask me to,” he said in a 2022 interview. “Wonderful things happened in my life. I’m incredibly grateful for all of them. But that’s the ticket for me, is helping people on a large scale or helping one guy and seeing the light turn on.”
He transformed his Malibu mansion, the ‘Perry House’, into a sober house for men. Additionally, he penned the play “The End of Longing” as a way to share his own battle with alcoholism, providing solace to those who may be facing similar struggles.
Because of his hard work, he received the Champion of Recovery award from the White House in 2013 and became a spokesperson for the National Association of Drug Court Professionals. In 2022, he published a memoir focusing on his experience with addiction called “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing.”
Matthew Perry was a lauded actor and a person loved by castmates and fans alike. His life story is one of hope and triumph in the face of adversity. Despite many obstacles on his journey to sobriety, he persevered, and then made it his mission to help others.
“When I die, I know people will talk about Friends, Friends, Friends,” Perry said in an interview. “And I’m glad of that, happy I’ve done some solid work as an actor, as well as given people multiple chances to make fun of my struggles on the world wide web … but when I die, as far as my so-called accomplishments go, it would be nice if Friends were listed far behind the things I did to try to help other people.”
While we most commonly know and remember him as beloved Chandler Bing from the sitcom “Friends,” Matthew Perry was much more than just a great actor – he was a man who dedicated his life to helping others.
