Matthew Perry has been buried in a star-studded cemetery that is the last resting place of some of Hollywood’s most famous celebrities.
The Friends star was laid to rest on Friday at a private funeral service at the Forest Lawn Church of the Hillys in Los Angeles.
Forest Lawn Memorial Park cemetery is opposite Warner Bros Studios, where Friends was filmed for 10 seasons, and is the final resting place of a galaxy of Hollywood stars – among them Carrie Fisher, Bette Davis, Stan Laurel, Buster Keaton, INXS frontman Michael Hutchence and Anne Heche.
Other major celebs include Western star Lee Van Cleef, fitness guru Jack LaLane and Paul Walker from the Fast and Furious films.
Pictured, Matthew Perry who is best known for his role as Chandler Bing on the TV sitcom Friends
Pictured, Carrie Fisher known for role as Princess Leia in the original Star Wars trilogy
Bette Davis is another famous face who is buried at the cemetery
Pictured, Stan Laurel, known as part of the comedy duo, Laurel and Hardy
American comedian of the silent era Buster Keaton (1895-1966), who started his career in Hollywood in 1917
According to the Smithsonian, the cemetery contains more stars per square foot than any zip code in Los Angeles.
More than 350,000 people lie buried within Forest Lawn’s 300-plus acres.
The graves are embedded flat in the ground, making it difficult to single out any one person, and you can’t ask staff for help with directions to a celebrity tombstone out of respect for the dead’s privacy.
Many celebrities choose to be buried in the cemetery because of the anonymity it provides after death.
Pictured, Lee Van Cleef who is best known for his roles in Westerns such as the Spaghetti Western trilogy
Paul Walker, known for his roles in the Fast and the Furious starring alongside Vin Diesel
Pictured, the original fitness guru and entrepeneur, Jack LaLane, in his Los Angeles home
Pictured, Anne Heche known for her roles in films such as Donnie Brasco and the remake of Psycho
It was founded by Hubert Eaton who established the cemetery in its present form in 1917.
The graveyard, with its flat, open layout, was copied countless times by other cemeteries across the United States.
It doubled as a spectacle of art, Christianity, architecture and patriotism which made it a groundbreaking success that changed the face of cemeteries in America and corporatising mourning.
There are five other Forest Lawns in the Los Angeles area using the same model.
The one in Glendale is the first and oldest with classic stars such as Jimmy Stewart, Elizabeth Taylor and Humphrey Bogart buried there.
The Forest Lawn is the hipper resting place for the modern celebrity crowd whereas the others are populated by B-list and C-list celebrities.
Some critics have even dubbed Forest Lawn as the Disneyland of cemeteries, although Disneyland was built after the cemetery.
On Friday, during Matthew Perry’s funeral, his co-stars Jennifer Aniston, 54; Lisa Kudrow, 60; Courteney Cox, 59; and David Schwimmer, 57, arrived as a quartet.
They were all dressed in black suits and sombre as they prepared to say their last goodbyes to Perry at Forest Lawn cemetery.
They were joined outside the church after the simple hour-long ceremony by Matt LeBlanc, 56, and were pictured in conversation with other well-wishers.
Throughout his life, Perry had been open about his struggles with drugs and alcohol
Forest Lawn Memorial Park was once dubbed as the Disneyland of cemeteries despite being built well before the original theme park
There are five other Forest Lawns in the Los Angeles area using the same model
The service ended with a rendition of Peter Gabriel’s song ‘Don’t Give Up’ which includes the lyrics: ‘No fight left or so it seems, I am a man whose dreams have all deserted, I’ve changed my face, I’ve changed my name, But no one wants you when you lose.’
An onlooker told DailyMail.com: ‘There was not a dry eye in there. There were a lot of tears and laughter. Only close friends and family spoke.’
After the service, Perry was buried in a dark wooden coffin in a family-only ceremony.
Crowds of black-clad mourners stood around outside the church after the ceremony.
Some were seen embracing and comforting each other. Many wore dark sunglasses, to shield their eyes from the bright Californian sun.
The church in Los Angeles has played host to a long line of celebrity funerals, from Stan Laurel’s to Carrie Fisher’s. It is unclear whether Perry indicated his final wishes
A van is seen arriving at the cemetery ahead of Perry’s funeral
Perry’s stepfather Keith Morrison, with the gray hair served as a pallbearer
Jennifer Aniston (left), Courteney Cox (second left), David Schwimmer (centre), Lisa Kudrow (second right) and Matt LeBlanc (far right) are seen on Friday at Matthew Perry’s funeral
Perry’s cause of death remains unconfirmed, but initial toxicology reports found that there was no meth or fentanyl in his system when he drowned.
Throughout his life, Perry had been open about his struggles with drugs and alcohol.
The common narcotics were not found in Perry’s system during initial tests, according to a TMZ report. But more in-depth testing is underway and would show if the beloved actor had any prescription medication in his system.
When investigators responded to Perry’s home, they did not find any illegal drugs but found a prescription medication that was properly labelled and kept in storage bottles.
In his 2022 memoir, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, Perry wrote that after his colon exploded in 2018, he was prescribed opiates that he deemed insufficient to deal with his pain, prompting him to turn to street dealers to supply him with potentially fentanyl-laced OxyContin.
