Matthew Perry was born August 19, 1969 in Williamstown, Massachusetts, to an advertising actor father and a journalist mother. His parents divorced when he was still young and he went to live with his mother in Canada, where he continued his education. In 1984, he decided to stop his studies and join his father in the United States where he began his acting career. He never hid his desire to succeed in Hollywood: “Steam was coming out of my ears, I wanted to be famous so much. You want the attention, you want the money and you want the best seat at the restaurant. “, he told the New York Times in 1997. After a few minor roles, he was spotted to play a main character in a new series: “Friends”.
The Friends family
For ten years, from 1994 to 2004, Matthew Perry played the role of the sarcastic and endearing Chandler Bing in the series “Friends”. It is undeniably his most famous role, and the one most praised by the public, even being nominated for an Emmy Award in 2002. “It changed my life in every way. I started the series when I was 24; it ended when I was 34. It shaped my life. And it was the best time of my life,” he said in 2021.
In addition to launching his career (and earning him up to $1 million per episode), the series made him meet Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer, Lisa Kudrow and Matt LeBlanc, who would become his family, before and behind the camera. He said of the help the cast of “Friends” gave him: “It’s like the penguins. In the wild, when a penguin is sick or very injured, other penguins will surround it, support it, and walk it until it can walk on its own. It's a bit like what others did for me. I was the injured penguin,” he told People.
A battle against his demons
A precious help, because behind the shell of humor and sarcasm of his character, hides a man prey to his own sensitivity. “She is one of the most sensitive people I have met. He cares about what people think,” his friend and colleague in “Friends,” Jennifer Aniston, said of him.
Matthew Perry is a man who battles addictions. To drugs, but also to alcohol. The man who was known as the funniest character on “Friends” suffered a Jet Ski accident in 1997 and was prescribed Vicodin, a drug to which he became addicted. He entered rehab for the first time that same year, before being admitted to hospital in 2002 for inflammation of the pancreas, caused by alcohol abuse. In almost thirty years, he underwent nearly fifteen detoxification treatments. In his memoir “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing,” he reveals having spent more than $7 million on his sobriety.
Unfortunately, despite the concerns and attempts at help from those close to him, Matthew Perry will never completely escape his addictions: “You can't force someone to be sober. The decision must come from them,” he told “People” in 2002. While he said he had been sober for a while, the actor was found dead in his jacuzzi on October 28, 2023, at the age of 54. years from an overdose of ketamine, which he took to reduce his anxiety.
Unfinished family projects
In his will, the actor left part of his fortune to his parents, John Perry and Suzanne Morrison, as well as his half-sister Caitlin Morrison. But also and above all, to his ex-partner Rachel Dunn. Their relationship, although relatively brief – they were a couple from 2003 to 2005 – had a significant impact on the actor. In his memoir published in 2022, he described her as “the ex-girlfriend of his dreams”. “With Rachel in my life, I know I can be very involved and not a selfish guy who just wants to hang out with his friends,” he told the Evening Standard in 2004.
The actor never married, confiding to “People” magazine in 2022 that he was afraid of commitment. But he seemed determined to find “the right person”: “The next person I really take seriously will be someone I'm in love with and who won't be scared by the things that scared me before.” A year before his tragic death, he also spoke about his desire to start a family: “As a father, I think I would be great. I really think so,” he told People magazine. An adventure he could never experience.
In October 2024, almost a year after his death, Mathew Perry's mother revealed the last conversation she had with her son, which resonates like a dire premonition: “I love you so much and I'm so happy to be with you now,” he told her. Today his parents are looking for those responsible for their son's death. A trial is planned for 2025, which targets in particular the doctor who prescribed ketamine to the actor.
