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.
Gwyneth Paltrow recalls ‘magical summer’ with Matthew Perry
Actor and Goop founder Paltrow remembered how Perry “hoped his break was around the corner” when she met him in 1993 at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Massachusetts, in a touching tribute on Instagram.
Alongside a photograph of Perry taken in the Noughties, she wrote: “We were both there for most of the summer doing plays. He was so funny and so sweet and so much fun to be with. We drove out to swim in creeks, had beers in the local college bar, kissed in a field of long grass.
“It was a magical summer,” the Iron Man actor continued. “He had shot the pilot of Friends but it had not aired yet. He was nervous, hoping his big break was just around the corner. It was.”
Read more:
Gwyneth Paltrow recalls ‘magical summer’ with Matthew Perry
Perry’s fans were left devastated after the beloved ‘Friends’ star died in an apparent drowning on Saturday
Listen: Matthew Perry 911 call audio released as cause of death probed
Tribute: Matthew Perry, the comic genius who wore his big, bruised heart on his sleeve
The Friends star’s performances were a masterclass in comic timing. And in his life outside of Chandler Bing, he was disarmingly honest about his frailties and his struggles with addiction. Fiona Sturges pays tribute
Matthew Perry, the comic genius who wore his big, bruised heart on his sleeve
The ‘Friends’ star’s performances were a masterclass in comic timing. And in his life outside of Chandler Bing, he was disarmingly honest about his frailties and his struggles with addiction. Fiona Sturges pays tribute
Voices: Why Matthew Perry’s death is a watershed moment for millennials
There are other icons who have passed, but Perry was that exact right combination of just-young-enough and not-quite-as-young-as-you-remember to make you really reflect on what his death means to you, Ryan Coogan writes
Why Matthew Perry’s death is a watershed moment for millennials | Ryan Coogan
There are other icons who have passed, but Perry was that exact right combination of just-young-enough and not-quite-as-young-as-you-remember to make you really reflect on what his death means to you
Video: Friends co-creators recall final conversation with Matthew Perry before his death
How Matthew Perry wanted to be remembered
In a podcast interview with Tom Power last year, Perry revealed that he aspired to be remembered not for his iconic role in the sitcom Friends but for his efforts in supporting people struggling with addiction.
He said: “I’ve had a lot of ups and downs in my life but the best thing about me, bar none, is that if an alcoholic or drug addict comes up to me and says, ‘Will you help me?’ I will always say ‘Yes, I know how to do that. I will do that for you, even if I can’t always do it for myself.’ So I do that, whenever I can. In groups, or one on one.”
Read more:
How Matthew Perry wanted to be remembered: ‘I know people will talk about Friends...’
‘When I die, as far as my so-called accomplishments go, it would be nice if Friends were listed far behind the things I did to try to help other people’
Hank Azaria says Matthew Perry helped him get sober as he pays tribute to late friend
How Matthew Perry made his own Friends in the writers’ room
In the wake of Matthew Perry’s tragic death, fans and collaborators of the 54-year-old actor have reflected on the star’s comic talents beyond the stage.
Despite Friends producers having kept an open door policy to the writers’ room, only Perry regularly contributed to scripts – often happily pitching up to ten jokes an episode while his co-stars unwound backstage.
How Matthew Perry made his own Friends in the writers’ room
Late ‘Friends’ star was the ‘only one’ of the main cast who contributed to the script
Matthew Perry ‘wanted Zac Efron to play him in biopic’, friend says
Matthew Perry hoped to work again with his 17 Again co-star Zac Efron on a biopic about his own life, the late actor’s friend has said.
Perry starred in the 2009 comedy as a man in his late thirties who magically turns back into his 17-year-old self, played by Efron.
Speaking to People, Perry’s friend Athenna Crosby – who saw the actor just one day before his death – the Friends star had “wanted to make a movie about his life and have a biopic made”.
The model added that Perry had “wanted Zac Efron, who’s played him already to play him again because he said he did such a good job”.
Matthew Perry wanted Zac Efron to play younger self in biopic
Despite working together for the film ‘17 Again’, Efron had already declined to feature in a romcom Perry wrote
John Stamos recalls Matthew Perry’s act of kindness during his Friends cameo
A few days after Perry’s sudden death, actor John Stamos honoured the Friends star in an Instagram post.
“Matthew and I had been friendly long before Friends, so when I guest starred as Zach, the prospective sperm donor for Chandler (Perry) and Monica (Courteney Cox), I hung with him a lot,” the Full House star wrote.
Alongside a clip of a scene from the show’s episode titled “The One with the Donor”, in which Monica and Chandler grill Zach about his family’s health history, Stamos recounted Perry’s unforgettable act of kindness on set.
John Stamos recalls Matthew Perry’s kindness during his ‘embarrassing’ Friends cameo
Stamos appeared as a guest star on season nine of the hit NBC sitcom
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