Matthew Perry's Tragic True Life Story
Anyone who had a television in their home in the '90s and early 2000s will instantly recognize Matthew Perry as Chandler Bing on NBC's "Friends." One of the most popular television sitcoms of all time, Perry played a significant part in the series that lasted for 10 seasons and collected a treasure trove of awards and accolades along the way. Subsequently, the actor developed a successful career after his "Friends" fame, leading movies like "The Whole Nine Yards" and maintaining regular work in television.
Sadly, it is no secret that Perry faced many hurdles throughout his career. Once one of the biggest names in Hollywood thanks to "Friends," Perry's addiction troubles limited his ability to reach equal status following the show's cancellation in 2004. Known for his comedic timing and sharp-tongued sarcasm, Perry spent much of the latter part of his career attempting to recreate the "Friends" magic with sitcoms like "Mr. Sunshine" and "The Odd Couple," in which he served as writer and performer.
The actor also became known for his philanthropic efforts. Turning his addiction struggles into advocacy, Perry earned a Champion of Recovery award after opening the Perry House — a rehabilitation clinic built in his former Malibu home. However, reaching such heights in his career and personal life also involved many missteps on the road to his own recovery. These are the tragic details of Perry's life and career that led to his unexpected death in October 2023.
His parents separated when he was a baby
Raised in Ottawa, Canada, Matthew Perry's parents were significant figures. His father, John Bennett Perry, was an American actor best recognized for minor roles in "Independence Day" and "The Legend of the Lone Ranger." Meanwhile, Matthew Perry's mother, Suzanne Marie Morrison, was a former beauty queen who served as press secretary to the country's Prime Minister before transitioning to journalism. Unfortunately, the pair separated before their son reached his first birthday.
Perry's mother would find a new partner in celebrated "Dateline" correspondent Keith Morrison, but the young performer admitted that he did not see much at all of any of his celebrity parents. "I spent a great deal of time alone," Perry wrote in his memoirs "Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing" (per BBC). Thankfully, the actor credits much of his humor and talents to his independent childhood. "I learned to be funny — Pratfalls, quick one liners, you know the drill — Because I had to be." Even more tragically, when it came to seeing his father he said, "I saw his face more often on TV or in magazines than I did in reality." Perry also admitted that he started misbehaving at an early age, smoking, and stealing money by the age of 10, and having his first taste of alcohol at 14.
His dreams of playing tennis were crushed
It may come as a surprising fact that Matthew Perry was once considered an athletic prodigy, and before becoming an actor, Perry had his sights set on a tennis career. The actor first hit the court when he was 4 years old. Training nearly 10 hours a day by age 13, he ranked among the best for juniors in his home country of Canada. "I needed to succeed at whatever I was doing so I could feel better about myself. I had this incredible drive on the tennis court," he noted in an interview with the New York Times.
Sadly, it was when Perry moved to live with his father in California that the reality of a sports career seemed much more daunting. "I was a very good tennis player in Ottawa, Canada — nationally ranked when I was, like, 13," he explained in a 2012 interview with Men's Health. "Then I moved to Los Angeles when I was 15, and everyone in L.A. just killed me. I was pretty great in Canada. Not so much in Los Angeles." Thankfully, the young star had a backup plan. "I realized I wouldn't be playing tennis for a living, so I went for acting. Are tennis and acting alike? I don't know. They're both very mental games." While his career ultimately went in a different direction, the racket sport remained a passion for the actor as his last public appearance was reportedly at the 2023 French Open in Paris, France (per People).
He faced addiction issues
Matthew Perry openly expressed that the most significant demon of his life has been his addiction struggles. His memoirs released just one year before his passing illuminated many of the challenges that the actor faced. He described himself as an alcoholic since he first started drinking as a teenager. However, his addictions overtook his life after he was prescribed painkillers following a jet ski accident in 1997, resulting in his first stay at a rehabilitation clinic the same year.
By 2000, the "Friends" star's drinking meant he was hospitalized with pancreatitis and had crashed his Porsche into the steps of his Hollywood home. The actor described the amount he was consuming by this time to People Magazine in 2002: Starting with an "insane amount of pills," as many as 55 Vicodin daily, and "probably a quart of vodka a day." "I didn't know how to stop," Perry recalled in a separate interview with People in 2022 following his sobriety. "If the police came over to my house and said, 'If you drink tonight, we're going to take you to jail,' I'd start packing. I couldn't stop because the disease and the addiction is progressive. So, it gets worse and worse as you grow older."
He doesn't remember three years of filming Friends
Unavoidably, Matthew Perry's addiction problems collided starkly with his career. First landing the role of Chandler Bing when he was 24 years old, the addiction was just beginning to take the reins. "I could handle it, kind of," he told People. "But by the time I was 34, I was really entrenched in a lot of trouble." Audiences were naïve to how brutal it was for Perry, as the actor conceded the extent years later.
While appearing on BBC Radio 2 in 2016 (via Entertainment Weekly), he was questioned on his least favorite episode from "Friends," and he candidly replied, "I think the answer is I don't remember three years of it." He went on to admit that Season 3 to Season 6 were blurred in his memories. "I was a little out of it, yeah." The actor struggles to look back at his time on the beloved sitcom as it was equally one of the most challenging eras of his life. "I can't watch the show, because I was brutally thin and being beaten down so badly by the disease," he said while being interviewed by Tom Power. "I could tell season by season by how I looked, and I don't think anybody else can, but I certainly could."
His co-stars could see his suffering
Juggling being on top of the world in one of television's top-rated sitcoms while dealing with addiction, proved a task Matthew Perry struggled to manage. However, the biggest problem he noted was disappointing his co-stars. "I made a rule that I would never drink or take anything at work. But I would show up blindly hung over," the actor said in an ABC News interview. "I thought I was hiding it so well." Unfortunately, the five other prominent "Friends" were each affected by Perry's struggles at one point or another.
"When Matthew was sick, it was not fun," Lisa Kudrow told the New York Times. "We were just hopelessly standing on the sidelines. We were hurting a lot." Meanwhile, Matt LeBlanc admitted to People that he tried to help his onscreen roommate but, "It's such a personal struggle; they need to bottom out on their own." Notably, it was Jennifer Anniston whom Perry praised in his ABC interview as "The one who reached out the most."
Perry concedes that he would not have made it through 10 seasons without his castmates. "They were patient," he said of his "Friends" co-stars in his memoirs (via People). "It's like penguins. Penguins, in nature, when one is sick, or when one is very injured, the other penguins surround it and prop it up. They walk around it until that penguin can walk on its own. That's kind of what the cast did for me."
He spent $9 million getting sober
Matthew Perry has had a lifelong grudge match with his addiction. One of his biggest realizations came when he put the numbers down for how much he has invested into getting clean. "I've probably spent $9 million or something trying to get sober," was Perry's estimate for the New York Times. "It's still a day-to-day process of getting better." Additionally, the actor notes that he has spent an obscene number of days at sober living facilities — more than half of his life by the time he was 49, he approximates.
As well as the time and effort he put into sobriety, Perry has also done his part to give back. In 2013, he opened the doors of his Malibu beach house, transitioning it into a dedicated sober living facility for men suffering from addiction. The aptly named Perry House was eventually sold in 2015 because of the high operating costs of living in Malibu. However, Perry continued to take significant pride in being able to help those who have suffered the same hurdles as himself. "When I die, I'd like 'Friends' to be listed behind helping people," the actor told People Magazine (per Today).
A porn star claimed he was no longer sober
It was understandably difficult for audiences and the media to keep up with Matthew Perry's journey, as the actor struggled with maintaining his sobriety for many years. Shockingly, it was a porn star who exposed Perry for falling out of sobriety in 2017. Maddy O'Reilly, who was once featured on the cover of Penthouse Magazine, says she first met Perry in 2013. The pair allegedly had plans to meet in 2017 before the actor sideswiped her with an unexpected request: If she could help him "purchase some pills."
"I was really looking disappointed, it went from us making dinner plans to Matthew asking me for 40 to 50 pills," O'Reilly told tabloid publication Daily Mail. "I was shocked, I knew he is a recovering addict, but it was coming out of nowhere, why would he ask me something like that, it's not like we partied, or I have a reputation for partying." It is noteworthy that Perry avoided publicly responding to the allegations — and for good reason. None of O'Reilly's claims could be verified. Additionally, the porn actress openly admitted that Perry cancelled their meal plans, essentially rejecting her, making her tabloid claims all that more questionable.
He nearly died in 2018
After decades of pushing his health to the brink, the substance use caught up with Matthew Perry in 2018. The actor suffered a gastrointestinal perforation — a product of his opioid addiction — and he narrowly survived the traumatic event. "The doctors told my family that I had a two percent chance to live," he told People in 2022. "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."
Perry revealed that the life-threatening situation put him in a coma for two weeks followed by a five-month hospital stay. However, the close call had lasting implications on his life. He had over a dozen surgeries and carried a colostomy bag for nine months as a result of his health complications. "My therapist said, 'The next time you think about taking Oxycontin, just think about having a colostomy bag for the rest of your life,'" recalled the actor. "A little window opened and I crawled through it and I no longer want Oxycontin anymore." Undoubtedly, Perry counted his blessings and used his second chance at life to complete his memoirs. "There were five people put on an ECMO machine that night and the other four died and I survived."
He was blindsided by the cancellation of one sitcom
When the "Friends" series finale aired in 2004, marking the end of a decade-long sitcom sensation, it became one of the most-watched television events, bringing in over 52 million American viewers. Sadly, the same cannot be said for Matthew Perry's follow-up sitcoms. Shows like "Mr. Sunshine" and "Go On" failed to materialize past an inaugural season and fizzled out without much attention. Subsequently, someone may have entirely forgotten to tell Perry that his last series was cancelled before he showed up for work.
"The Odd Couple" was Perry's last attempt at rekindling his sitcom fame. The show was a reboot of The Odd Couple franchise that includes shows, films, and even a Saturday morning cartoon. Producing and starring in the series, it became Perry's most successful television project post-"Friends," with three seasons airing between 2015 and 2017. However, when CBS announced that they were not going to order fresh episodes in late 2016, Perry missed the memo. "My face on the 'Odd Couple' stage door has been painted over with green paint," The actor hilariously posted on X (formerly known as Twitter) in the spring of 2017. "I think it's safe to assume that we have been cancelled."
He chose the wrong celebrity to pick on in his memoirs
Many of the details of Matthew Perry's life have only become available thanks to the actor's self-written book, "Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing." However, when the memoirs were published in 2022, Perry received heavy backlash from fans and celebrities alike for taking punches at one of Hollywood's most beloved figures: Keanu Reeves.
"Why is it that the original thinkers like River Phoenix and Heath Ledger die, but Keanu Reeves still walks among us?" Perry questionably wrote. By all accounts, the "Friends" actor has never professionally crossed paths with the "Matrix" star, making the namedrop more confusing. Perry doubled down on his literary attack on Reeves later in his memoirs, reiterating "Keanu Reeves walks among us," after detailing how devastated he was by comedian Chris Farley's death.
In the wake of the one-sided feud, many celebrities vocalized their defence for Reeves. "In a world full of Matthew Perry's ... be a Keanu Reeves," Billy Baldwin said in a post on X (formerly known as Twitter). Meanwhile, Michael Ian Black joked, "Glad somebody is finally taking Keanu down a peg." Following the negative reaction, Perry was quick to apologize. "I'm actually a big fan of Keanu," he said in a statement to Deadline. "I just chose a random name, my mistake. I apologize. I should have used my own name instead."
He was unlucky in love
A noteworthy star himself, Matthew Perry happened to have dated some of the biggest actresses in Hollywood. Some of the high-profile women that crossed paths with Perry include Julia Roberts, Cameron Diaz, Lizzy Caplan, and Gwyneth Paltrow. Sadly, despite rubbing elbows with some of the most elite bachelorettes, Perry never held down a committed relationship for long.
"I need love but I don't trust it," the actor said of his romantic life in his book (per RNZ). "If I drop my game like Chandler and show you who I really am you might notice me — but worse you might notice me and might leave me, and I can't have that." On one of his most heartbreaking breakups, he said, "I was broken, bent, unlovable. So instead of facing the inevitable agony of losing her, I broke up with the beautiful and brilliant Julia Roberts." The "Friends" star seemed to have finally found love when he got engaged to Molly Hurwitz in 2020. Alas, the pair called off the wedding a few months later, with Perry telling People Magazine, "Sometimes things just don't work out and this is one of them."
His unexpected death at age 54
With all the tribulations that Matthew Perry faced throughout his life, the actor had seemingly finally gotten himself on a healthy track. While promoting his book through 2022, he boasted a clean lifestyle. "I'm pretty healthy now. I've got to not go to the gym much more because I don't want to only be able to play superheroes," he joked to People Magazine. "But no, I'm a pretty healthy guy right now."
With the worst seemingly behind the beloved sitcom star, it was extra shocking when it was revealed on October 28, 2023, that Perry had died from an apparent drowning in a hot tub. "We are heartbroken by the tragic loss of our beloved son and brother," read a statement from Perry's family to People. "Matthew brought so much joy to the world, both as an actor and a friend." Additionally, they sent a message to Perry's fans across the globe, "You all meant so much to him and we appreciate the tremendous outpouring of love."
If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).