Matthew Langford Perry (August 19, 1969 – October 28, 2023)
Watching 'chandler' [FRIENDS very popular in Indonesia since 90s] bring to life one of the best comfort characters ever. All the laughs and smiles he brought us won’t go unnoticed.
Pacific Palisades 6.57pm
Behind the comedic one-liners and witty sarcasm, ‘Chandler Bing’ was hiding a secret – the actor playing the famous sitcom character on “Friends” was battling serious addiction issues. Now sober, Perry opens up about his experience, hoping to help others who are struggling with addiction. Beloved for his portrayal of Chandler Bing on the hit sitcom Friends, Perry famously made $1 million per episode at the height of the show’s popularity.
In 1994, Perry landed the role of Chandler Bing on Friends, earning an Emmy nod for his work in 2002.
“It was as if someone had followed me around for a year, stealing my jokes, copying my mannerisms, photocopying my world-weary yet witty view of life," he wrote in his 2022 memoir, according to Deadline. “It wasn’t that I thought I could play 'Chandler'; I was Chandler.”
As with his costars Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer, the show became a large part of his legacy. The cast reunited in 2021 on an HBO Max special, though spent quality time together off-screen through the years, often popping up at each other's premieres and birthday dinners.
Matthew Perry was born in Williamstown, Massachusetts, on Aug. 19, 1969, though was raised in Ottawa, Canada (he attended elementary school with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau).
His mother, Suzanne Morrison, was a journalist and press secretary to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, Justin’s father.
Perry’s stepfather is Dateline‘s Keith Morrison. His father, John Bennett Perry, was once an actor and model — the younger Perry even guest-starred in an episode of his dad’s cop show, 240-Robert, in 1979.
He also plunged into a three-decade battle with alcohol and drug addiction.
Since conquering his addictions to prescription drugs and alcohol, Friends actor and comedic genius Matthew Perry has made it his mission to share his struggles with the hope they will encourage the benefits of sobriety. He has been quoted as saying” A lot of people think that addiction is a choice. A lot of people think it’s a matter of will. That has not been my experience. I don’t find it to have anything to do with strength”. Perry struggled with depression, alcohol and prescription drug abuse while appearing on “Friends”. He credits the press coverage for getting him into recovery.
In May 2013, The Office of National Drug Control Policy honored Perry with the Champion of Recovery award for his work with the National Association of Drug Court Professionals (NADCP). Drug courts allow non-violent substance abusers the opportunity to avoid jail time if they agree to rehabilitation treatment. As an Ambassador for the NADCP, Matthew has been to Capitol Hill several times to lobby for the additional funding needed to expand access to drug courts across the United States.
Later that month, Perry opened his Malibu property [in Pacific Palisades] as a sober living home for men. Malibu enjoys near-mythical status thanks to its large celebrity population (it's been celebrity central since the 1930s) and the incredible beauty of its 27 miles of coastal mountains, pristine coves, wide sweeps of golden sand and epic waves. Pacific Palisades is nestled North of Santa Monica and South of Malibu, with the Pacific Ocean and Will Rogers State Beach on its southern boundary. The Perry House is committed to helping the men recover through the twelve-step program and meditation.
Perry continues to act. In February 2016, he made his debut in the lead role of a new production of his play The End of Longing, at the Playhouse Theatre in London. His most recognized roles are the Emmy-nominated ‘Quincy Jones’ on The West Wing and ‘Chandler Bing’ on the sitcom Friends.
In 2018 he was hospitalized for what was publicly described as a gastrointestinal perforation. In fact, his colon had burst from opioid overuse, leaving him fighting for his life. Only a very few in his inner circle knew just how harrowing his addiction had become. “It was a secret,” he says. “I was hiding it from everybody.”
As a young actor, Perry “thought being funny all the time was how I would get through,” he says.
He’s ready now to tell his story, and he’s written a heartbreakingly beautiful memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, detailing his journey — one filled with incredible highs and shattering lows.
“I wanted to share when I was safe from going into the dark side again,” he says. “I had to wait until I was pretty safely sober—and away from the active disease of alcoholism and addiction—to write it all down. I was pretty certain that it would help people if I did.”
Shuttled as a child between his divorced parents in L.A. and Montreal, Perry grew up with dreams of becoming a pro tennis player before trying his hand at acting. At 24, he nabbed the role of Chandler on a pilot then titled Friends Like Us. His alcohol addiction was just surfacing.
“I could handle it, kind of,” he says. “But by the time I was 34, I was really entrenched in a lot of trouble.”
At one terrifying point, he was taking 55 Vicodin a day and weighed 128 lbs. “I didn’t know how to stop,” he said. “The disease and the addiction is progressive, so it gets worse and worse as you grow older.”
He credits his Friends castmates for rallying around him. “They were understanding, and they were patient,” he says. “It could be said that [doing the show] saved me.”
Sitting down to discuss the book, Perry is wryly candid about his long periods of sobriety and relapses. He’s mostly been sober since 2001, he says, “with about 60 or 70 little mishaps over the years.” He has scars from 14 surgeries on his stomach and 15 rehab stints under his belt, and he’s well-versed on the tools needed to maintain his sobriety. He smiles when he’s complimented on his appearance.
“I’m pretty healthy now,” he says, before segueing into that familiar funnyman mode. “I’ve got to not go to the gym much more because I don’t want to only be able to play superheroes.”
While he prefers not to disclose how many days he’s been sober, he does still count. “It’s important, but if you lose your sobriety, it doesn’t mean you lose all that time and education. Your sober date changes, but that’s all. As long as you were able to fight your way back without dying, you learn a lot.”
Perry’s path, though intensely dark at times, has made the actor stronger “in every way,” he insists. “I’m most surprised with my resilience. The way that I can bounce back from all this torture and awfulness. Wanting to tell the story, even though it’s a little scary to tell all your secrets in a book, I didn’t leave anything out. Everything’s in there.” But it’s also a story “that’s filled with hope,” he adds. “Because here I am.”
