Actor Matthew Perry, who gained fame in the 1990s as the wise-cracking Chandler Bing in the top-rated US television comedy Friends and chronicled his decades-long battle with substance abuse in a memoir last year, has died aged 54.
Perry was found in a jacuzzi with no sign of foul play, a law enforcement source told the Los Angeles Times.
Authorities rushed to a call over a cardiac arrest, emergency sources told the media.
His death was confirmed in a statement posted by NBC, the broadcast network that aired Friends for 10 years, on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
"We are incredibly saddened by the too soon passing of Matthew Perry," NBC Entertainment said. "He brought so much joy to hundreds of millions of people around the world with his pitch perfect comedic timing and wry wit. His legacy will live on through countless generations."
The Los Angeles Times and TMZ.com, both citing unnamed law enforcement sources, reported that the American-Canadian performer was found dead in a hot tub or jacuzzi.
NBC News, citing an unnamed representative of Perry and a law enforcement source, reported the actor was found dead of an apparent drowning at his home in the Pacific Palisades neighbourhood of Los Angeles.
Ironically, Perry's last post on Instagram, on 23 October, was a photo of him sitting by a pool or jacuzzi at night, with him writing, "Oh, so warm water swirling around makes you feel good? I'm Mattman."
Perry was best known for his longtime role as Chandler in the hugely successful Friends, which ran for 10 seasons on the NBC network from 1994 to 2004, co-starring Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc and Lisa Kudrow.
The series made international celebrities out of all six castmates, playing a close-knit group of young adults who shared space in one another's apartments and met for coffee at the Central Perk, a fictional Manhattan cafe.
Friends debuted in 1994, has won 44 Emmys, and is one of the biggest successes in television history. Source: Getty / David Hume Kennerly
The entire group came back together 17 years after the series finale for
But none ever managed to rekindle quite the level of individual stardom and commercial success they garnered as the ensemble cast of what was for a time the most watched US television program in prime time. Each reportedly earned $US1 million ($1.6 million) per episode at the height of the show's popularity.
The cast of the hit NBC series Friends (left to right) Courteney Cox, Matthew Perry, Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer, and Matt LeBlanc, listen to Lisa Kudrow, sing during one of their last shows. Source: Getty / David Hume Kennerly
Actor's struggles with addictions and anxiety
Hidden from the public's view during much of the original run was Perry's prolonged struggle with addiction to prescription drugs and alcohol, which he detailed in his 2022 memoir, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing.
"Hi, my name is Matthew, although you may know me by another name. My friends call me Matty. And I should be dead," Perry wrote in the opening of the book.
In a New York Times interview published in October 2022, Perry said he had been clean for 18 months, telling the newspaper: "I've probably spent $US9 million or something trying to get sober."
The actor was found dead of an apparent drowning at his Los Angeles home on Saturday, according to the Los Angeles Times and celebrity website TMZ, which was the first to report the news. Source: AAP / Willy Sanjuan/AP
"Friends was huge. I couldn't jeopardise that. I loved the script. I loved my co-actors. I loved the scripts. I loved everything about the show but I was struggling with my addictions, which only added to my sense of shame," he wrote.
"I had a secret and no one could know.
"I felt like I was gonna die if the live audience didn't laugh, and that's not healthy for sure. But I could sometimes say a line and the audience wouldn't laugh and I would sweat and sometimes go into convulsions," Perry wrote.
"If I didn't get the laugh I was supposed to get, I would freak out. I felt that every single night. This pressure left me in a bad place. I also knew of the six people making that show, only one of them was sick."
Perry also recounted in the book that he had to be driven back to rehab right after shooting the episode of Chandler and Monica's wedding.
Following Friends, Perry went on to star in three more network television ventures that proved short-lived – Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Mr Sunshine and Go On.
Through his career, he also logged guest appearances or recurring roles in other hit TV shows, including The West Wing, Ally McBeal, Scrubs and Beverly Hills, 90210. His motion picture credits included Fools Rush In, The Whole Nine Yards, Almost Heroes and Three to Tango.
The Massachusetts-born actor grew up in Ottawa after his mother, a Canadian journalist who once served as press secretary to former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, divorced Perry's father and married a Canadian broadcast personality.
Trudeau's son and incumbent Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau paid tribute to his boyhood friend, calling Perry's death "shocking and saddening."
"I’ll never forget the schoolyard games we used to play, and I know people around the world are never going to forget the joy he brought them," Trudeau wrote on X.
As a youngster, Perry became a top-ranked junior tennis player before moving to Los Angeles to pursue acting and improvisational comedy.
