The creators of Friends have paid touching tribute to Matthew Perry following his unexpected death at the age of 54.
Co-creators Marta Kauffman and David Crane and director Kevin Bright have issued a joint statement following the sitcom star’s suspected drowning on Saturday.
They remembered Perry, who played Chandler Bing in the hugely popular sitcom, for his ‘blinding intelligence’ and always being ‘the funniest person in the room’.
‘We are shocked and deeply, deeply saddened by our beloved friend Matthew’s passing,’ they said in a statement given to Deadline. ‘It still seems impossible.’
‘All we can say is that we feel blessed to have had him as part of our lives.
Co-creators Marta Kauffman and David Crane and director Kevin Bright have issued a joint statement following the sitcom star’s suspected drowning on Saturday. (Pictured: Kauffman, Crane and Bright with the cast of Friends in 2000)
The creators of Friends have paid touching tribute to Matthew Perry following his unexpected death at the age of 54
‘We are shocked and deeply, deeply saddened by our beloved friend Matthew’s passing,’ the Friends creators said in a statement. ‘It still seems impossible’. (Pictured: mourners lay floral tributes to Perry outside the NYC apartment building used as the exterior shot in Friends
‘He was a brilliant talent. It’s a cliché to say that an actor makes a role their own, but in Matthew’s case, there are no truer words.
‘From the day we first heard him embody the role of Chandler Bing, there was no one else for us.
‘We will always cherish the joy, the light, the blinding intelligence he brought to every moment – not just to his work, but in life as well.
‘He was always the funniest person in the room. More than that, he was the sweetest, with a giving and selfless heart.
Playing on the famous episode titles in Friends, they added: ‘We send all of our love to his family and friends. This truly is The One Where Our Hearts Are Broken.’
Kauffman, Crane and Bright are the brains behind the sitcom which was a smash hit across the globe when it aired between 1994 and 2004, and re-runs still remain hugely popular years later.
They reunited with Perry along with his co-stars for the 2021 reunion special, for which they all shared an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded).
Friends followed the lives of six twenty-somethings living in New York including Perry’s character, Chandler Bing.
Tributes have flooded in for Friends star Matthew Perry after he was found dead yesterday
Perry has died aged 54 (pictured earlier this week, the last time he was seen in public) at his LA home
Aerial images show Perry’s pool and hot tub where he was reportedly found dead yesterday
It was a smash hit across the globe when it aired between 1994 and 2004, and re-runs still remain hugely popular years later.
Perry won a worldwide fanbase for his role, earning him an Emmy nomination in 2002 – but behind the glitz and glamour, he secretly battled substance abuse for decades.
The historically troubled star was found dead in his hot tub on Saturday afternoon of a suspected drowning, though the LA County coroner’s office currently list’s the case status of the actor’s death as ‘open.’ An autopsy has been scheduled.
Late Saturday night, Perry’s body was stretchered into a coroner’s van from the front door of his LA home.
Staff from the LA County Medical Examiner’s Office loaded Perry’s body into the van before closing its doors and driving off.
Perry is believed to have drowned hours after a game of pickleball, and in a redacted recording of the dispatch audio a man can be heard saying ‘rescue 23’, and ‘drowning’.
A law enforcement mole told TMZ that investigators had discovered prescription anti-depressants and anti-anxiety pills at Perry’s luxurious home, which overlooks the Pacific Ocean – but that no illegal drugs were found inside.
The actor, famous for playing Chandler Bing in Friends, was also in possession of a prescription COPD drug.
COPD stands for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, with the meds found at Perry’s home usually used for people with emphysema or chronic bronchitis.
Perry rose to fame for his role as ‘Chandler Bing’ on the hit 90s sitcom Friends, which ran for 10 seasons
Perry was a smoker and had also battled an addiction to alcohol as well as opiates, but claimed to have been clean shortly before his suspected drowning death.
The fresh revelations came after it was reported that EMTs were called to the home of the Friends star for a ‘water emergency’ and arrived to discover the actor had drowned, it is claimed.
Police sources told NBC News and CNN that they’d initially believed they were attending a possible ‘water rescue’ at the funnyman’s Pacific Palisades home after being called at 4:07pm PST Saturday.
They arrived to find the 54-year-old dead of an apparent drowning in his hot tub, with the LA Times reporting that Perry was ‘unresponsive.’
Officers from the LA Police Department’s robbery-homicide division were also sent to the home in Pacific Palisades, but a source said no drugs or signs of foul play were found at the scene.
