Matthew Perry laid to rest in Los Angeles among Friends cast members and family – latest
Friends star’s cause of death has been deemed ‘inconclusive’ following an initial autopsy as no signs of meth and fentanyl
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Matthew Perry was laid to rest at a Los Angeles cemetery yesterday in a service attended by relatives and castmates from the hit 1990s television sitcom Friends.
All five Friends co-stars – Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer – were present at the Forest Lawn cemetery in the Hollywood Hills neighbourhood of Los Angeles, reported TMZ.
Page Six said Perry’s father, John Bennett Perry, and his stepfather, Keith Morrison, were also there. About 20 people dressed in black attended and gathered around a burial plot, TMZ said.
On Friday, Perry’s hope of being remembered for “helping people to recover” from addiction realised as a foundation is set up in the late actor’s name.
The Matthew Perry Foundation said it "will honor his legacy and be guided by his own words and experiences and driven by his passion for making a difference in as many lives as possible”.
Last year, while promoting his book Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, the actor admitted that he hoped he would be remembered for his outreach work, rather than his time on the hit sitcom.
Matthew Perry found ‘purpose’ in helping other addicts, Friends creator says
Friends co-creator Marta Kauffman said helping other addicts “gave Matthew Perry purpose” in an interview with Today host Hoda Kotb.
Kauffman told Kotb that Perry, who battled drug and alcohol addictions for much of his life, was sober before his death on 28 October.
She added: “He wanted to help other addicts and it gave him purpose.”
Kauffman also said the Friends star sounded “happy and chipper” during their final conversation, which is why his death “seems so unfair”,
How Matthew Perry confronted his drug addiction and spent his life urging others to seek help
Perry made no secret of his addiction struggles over the years, writing candidly about his substance abuse and attempts to stay sober in his affecting memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing.
Released in 2021, the book chronicled the exacerbation of Perry’s addiction under the “white-hot flame of fame” after he shot to international stardom, aged 24, as the wise-cracking Chandler Bing in the hit sitcom Friends.
“Hi, my name is Matthew, although you may know me by another name,” he wrote in the book’s opening passage. “My friends call me Matty. And I should be dead.”
Read more:
‘Friends’ star, who has died aged 54, was a prominent campaigner for drugs reform and spoke candidly about his own battles with substance abuse
Opening line of Matthew Perry’s memoir has a heartbreaking new meaning
The opening line of Matthew Perry’s 2022 memoir Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing has taken on a heartbreaking new light in the wake of the Friends star’s death.
Tributes poured in from across the world in the wake of the tragic news, with many hailing Perry’s performance as the sarcastic but loveable Chandler as one of the best parts of the hugely popular sitcom.
However, while Friends was undoubtedly Perry’s biggest success as an actor, the star himself said he would rather be remembered for his ability to help others overcome their alcohol addiction.
The actor made no secret of his own addiction struggles over the years and, in November 2022, he discussed this candidly in his book.
Now, fans of Perry are sharing the opening line of the memoir, which has taken on new resonance following his death.
Read more:
Sitcom star’s fans are highlighting the line following his apparent drowning
Friends creator says she was ‘concerned’ about Matthew Perry during 2021 reunion
Friends co-creator Marta Kauffman has admitted that she was “concerned” about Matthew Perry during the show’s 2021 reunion special.
Nearly two decades after the hit NBC sitcom came to an end in 2004, the six leads – Perry, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer, Lisa Kudrow and Matt LeBlanc – returned to the show’s original soundstage for Friends: The Reunion.
Before that point, Perry – who died on Saturday, 28 October, aged 54 – hadn’t appeared on-screen since his four-episode feature on the 2017 drama mini-series The Kennedy’s After Camelot.
Speaking to TODAY show’s Hoda Kotb during a recent interview – which aired on NBC on Wednesday (1 November) – Kauffman said she was “concerned” about what point in Perry’s sobriety cycle he was in during the reunion.
Read more:
Perry was found dead in his Los Angeles home aged 54
Friends director reveals how cast are coping with Perry’s death
Friends director James Burrows has shared some insight into how the rest of the main cast members are dealing Perry’s sudden death.
Burrows, 82, who directed 15 episodes of Friends during its 10-season run, appeared on the Today show on Thursday to discuss the actor’s passing.
“I had to have a couple of days to just let it soak in,” Burrows said on the US morning show. “He was part of a family and he was the first one to not be part of that family anymore.”
Burrows said that upon hearing the news, he texted three of the lead cast members – Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox and Lisa Kudrow.
“I had texted the girls the day we found out,” Burrows said. “They were destroyed. It’s a brother dying.”
Read more:
Friends director says lead cast have been ‘destroyed’ by Matthew Perry death
James Burrows directed the first four episodes of ‘Friends’, which first aired in 1994
‘No meth or fentanyl found’ in Matthew Perry’s system
Early toxicology tests have reportedly revealed Matthew Perry did not have meth or fentanyl in his system at the time of his death, as the investigation into the Friends star’s cause of death continues.
However, a conclusive update is not expected for “four to six months” with further tests currently underway, American entertainment tabloid TMZ reported, citing law enforcement sources, on Wednesday (1 November).
Read more:
Perry died from an apparent drowning at his home on 28 October
Watch Matthew Perry's most iconic Friends scenes
Where to read Matthew Perry’s memoir
Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, which was published almost exactly a year ago, documents Perry’s rise to fame, his past relationships and his subsequent struggles with addiction.
The memoir has shot up both Amazon’s and Apple Books’ top charts, with Friends co-star Paget Brewster, who played Chandler’s love interest Kathy, urging fans on X to “please read his book. It was his legacy to help”.
Find out where to read it here:
Where to read Matthew Perry’s memoir, as it rises to No. 1
In the autobiography, Perry details his struggles with drug and alcohol addiction
Matthew Perry spent more than $9m trying to get sober
In his 2022 memoir, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, Perry detailed his battle with addiction to alcohol and painkillers.
Over the course of his three-decades-long journey towards sobriety, he wrote that he spent over $7m (£5.7m) on 15 rehab stints.
Speaking to The New York Times a few weeks before his book’s release, he disclosed that the figure was actually more like “$9m [£7.4m] or something trying to get sober”.
Read more:
Matthew Perry spent more than $9m trying to get sober
The ‘Friends’ star candidly wrote about his battle with addiction in his 2022 memoir, ‘Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing’
‘The West Wing shows us the great dramatic career Matthew Perry never had'
Matthew Perry was so much more than Chandler Bing, argues Louis Chilton, who recalls the late actor’s extraordinary Emmy-nominated guest role in which his character unpicks a scandal that brings down the vice president. His show-stealing turn on the political drama gave a glimpse of what might have been...
The show that shows us Matthew Perry’s true genius – and it’s not Friends
Matthew Perry was so much more than Chandler Bing, argues Louis Chilton, who recalls the late actor’s extraordinary Emmy-nominated guest role in which his character unpicks a scandal that brings down the vice president. His show-stealing turn on the political drama gave a glimpse of what might have been...
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