‘Friends’ star Matthew Perry dead at age 54 of apparent drowning: report

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Matthew Perry has died at the age of 54, TMZ has reported.

The beloved “Friends” star was reportedly discovered dead in a jacuzzi at a home in Los Angeles’ ritzy Pacific Palisades neighborhood just after 4 p.m. Saturday afternoon.

Law enforcement sources told TMZ that first-responders rushed to the address after a calling reporting a cardiac arrest.

The sources said no drugs were found at the scene and no foul play is suspected.

In a statement, the Los Angeles Police Department stated: “We responded to the 1800 block of Blue Sail Rd for a death investigation on a male 4:10 p.m. this afternoon. He was in his 50s.”

Perry — who was not married and had no children — had a long history of drug and alcohol abuse.

He opened up about his decades-long battle with addiction in a memoir titled “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing,” which was published last year.

Perry went to rehab 15 times and had undergone 14 surgeries to try and mitigate the damage done to his stomach lining due to alcohol and opioid use.

The actor claimed that in 2018 he almost died due to a gastrointestinal perforation. He subsequently spent months in the hospital.

“The doctors told my family that I had a 2 percent chance to live,” Perry stated at the time. “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 is pictured late last year during a promotional tour for his memoir.
Getty Images
Perry (far right) rose to fame playing fan-favorite Chandler for 10 seasons on the iconic sitcom “Friends,” which ran from 1994 – 2004. He is pictured with co-stars
NBCUniversal via Getty Images

Earlier this week, the star shared an eerie final photo to his Instagram account which showed him in an infinity pool.

“Oh, so warm water swirling around makes you feel good? I’m Mattman,” the actor captioned the photo.

Perry rose to fame playing fan-favorite Chandler on the iconic sitcom “Friends,” which ran from 1994 – 2004.

He was cast on the show at the age of 24, around the time his alcohol addiction started to manifest.

Three years later, in 1997, the star was reportedly prescribed opioids following an accident — and he quickly became hooked on them.

Perry is pictured shortly after he was cast in “Friends.” Around the same time he started abusing alcohol.
Ron Davis/Getty Images

His addiction got so bad that he was later taking 55 Vicodin pills per day and his weight plummeted to just over 120 pounds.

During the height of his “Friends” years, Perry was often in treatment. He did multiple stints in rehab during the decade he filmed the sitcom.

“There were years that I was sober during that time. Season 9 was the year that I was sober the whole way through. And guess which season I got nominated for best actor? I was like, ‘That should tell me something.’”

However, subsequently stints of sobriety were short-lived — and the damage to his health was long-lasting.

During a publicity tour for the tome last year, Perry revealed that he almost died in 2018 due to a gastrointestinal perforation. He subsequently spent months in the hospital.

“The doctors told my family that I had a 2 percent chance to live,” Perry stated at the time.

However, in recent years, Perry declared that he had finally beat his addictions and was sober.

“I’m a pretty healthy guy right now,” he optimistically declared in an interview with People.

“What I’m most surprised with is my resilience. The way that I can bounce back from all of this torture and awfulness,” said Perry. “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.”

Perry is pictured last year. The sober star said he had finally beaten his decades-long battle with prescription pills and alcohol and was sober.
Angela Weiss/Getty Images
Instagram/@mattyperry4


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