MATTHEW PERRY

(19 October 1969 – 28 October 2023)

The death of a cast member of Friends was akin to the shock of the demise of the first Beatle. Not quite, but almost. The global affection for Friends is hard to underestimate, it being a relatively simple sitcom set in Manhattan and shot in Burbank, California. Yet the interaction of the six protagonists, their fluctuating relationships and various mishaps, became an indispensable phenomenon, making huge stars of Matthew Perry, Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow and Courteney Cox, each of whom earned $1 million an episode. The final chapter of the series, simply titled ‘The Last One’, was the most watched TV episode of the 2000s.

Matthew Perry played Chandler Bing, a sardonic data processor who turned sarcasm into an art form. A classic line of his was, “Couldn't we just lose our virginities again? Because I think, actually, mine's growing back.” He was born in Williamstown, Massachusetts, and his mother was press secretary to the Canadian prime minister, Pierre Trudeau. His father is the actor John Bennet Perry, who played General Douglas MacArthur in John Milius’ Farewell to the King (1989) and is now 82, but retired. Matthew grew up in Ottawa with his mother and was a troublesome student, beating up fellow classmate Justin Trudeau (now prime minister). He also developed a liking for alcohol at the age of 14, a penchant, along with drugs, that plagued his health and professional life, resulting in fifteen different stays in rehab, fourteen stomach surgeries and 6,000 AA meetings. He was also reduced to wearing a colostomy bag for nine months and admitted that he had spent $9 million on his addiction.

After moving to Los Angeles and flirting with comedy improv, he landed a part in ABC TV’s Growing Pains, where he played a character who is killed in a drunk-driving crash. Then came Friends in 1994 and the inevitable film career. Fools Rush In (1997) was an agreeable if underwhelming romcom with Salma Hayek (and John Bennett Perry) which made a profit, unlike the comedy Western Almost Heroes which was a critical and commercial disaster. Three to Tango was hardly an improvement, and had far too much projectile vomiting, which led to The Whole Nine Yards (2000). This was Perry’s first bona fide hit in which he played a mild-mannered dentist who falls for the wife of a hitman (a menacing Bruce Willis), exhibiting the actor’s aptitude for slapstick. It produced a sequel, The Whole Ten Yards (2004), also with Willis, which flopped, and then there was the critically crucified Serving Sara, with Elizabeth Hurley, and Numb, which explored clinical depression and won the best picture prize at the Ojai International Film Festival. He went indie with Birds of America (2008) and completed his film career with another box-office hit, 17 Again (2009), in which he played a 37-year-old Zac Efron.

While he was briefly engaged, he never married, although he had high-profile liaisons with the actresses Gwyneth Paltrow, Julia Roberts, Cameron Diaz and Lizzy Caplan. His best-selling autobiography, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, was published in October of last year. He died aged 54.

JAMES CAMERON-WILSON