On Saturday, October 28, Friends star Matthew Perry passed away in his Los Angeles home. Perry was found unresponsive by his personal assistant in his hot tub.
In the early hours of Sunday, October 29, the news of Perry’s passing broke out. Immediately, social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and X, were showered with tributes to Perry.
Matthew Perry was an actor who played ‘Chandler Bing’ on the NBC sitcom Friends for ten seasons until 2004. During his time on the show, his fame would skyrocket, and he would be nominated for multiple awards in the U.S.
Throughout his life, Perry suffered from addiction. Last year, while promoting his book, he said that had been sober for eighteen months. On Saturday, when authorities searched his home, they found prescription drugs including anti-depressants, anxiety pills, and heart drugs.
Since last year, Perry had been taking a prescription medication called ‘Suboxone’; which has life-threatening side effects when it is ingested while taking long baths in hot water. Experts from Mayo Clinic suspect that his death was caused by an overdose on Suboxone.
Perry’s pickleball partner said, “Perry, who usually plays pickleball for two hours, stopped playing after one hour because he felt fatigued.” With this, and the heart drugs found at his home, authorities speculated that Perry’s cause of death might have been a heart attack.
Perry’s private funeral service was held on Friday, November 3. In attendance were family, friends, and his Friends co-stars. He was laid to rest at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles; near the studios where Friends was filmed.
Former CSHS student, Ashley Toledo, says, “Friends was my go-to comfort show. Chandler was always the one making the best jokes and funniest remarks. Watching the show now won’t be the same; we will never see all six of them together again. We will never hear Matthew Perry’s jokes again.”
The director of Friends, James Burrows, said, “They [The Cast] were destroyed. It’s a brother dying.” Not only has Perry’s passing left many distraught, but many Colts with an unfillable void.
