Vale Matthew Perry

The death that struck us all – “Friends” beloved star Matthew Perry was sadly found dead on Saturday 28 October in his Los Angeles home, aged just 54.

We had either gotten the news notification on our phones or had heard friends and family talk about the devastating news. Some of us had only known him from playing fan-favourite Chandler Bing on the funny TV show ‘Friends’. He brought so much of the laughter and joy on the 90s sitcom. He had also featured in other TV shows like ‘Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip’ as well as the film ‘The Whole Nine Yards.”

Perry initially aspired to a career in tennis, not acting. By the age of 13, he was a top-ranked junior tennis player in Ottawa, Canada. When Perry was 15, he and his father moved to Los Angeles, but, confronted with the steep tennis competition in LA, decided to try his hand at acting. When asked if tennis and acting were similar, Perry said “They’re both very mental games. They’re both very heavy things to be a part of.”

Though Matthew Perry’s fame had risen through ‘Friends’, he achieved so much more throughout his lifetime. He was nominated for 34 acting awards and won six. He also completely changed his Malibu home into a sober living facility called the Perry House. Perry reflected, “when I die, I don’t want ‘Friends’ to be the first thing that’s mentioned… I want helping people to be the first thing that’s mentioned, and I’m going to live the rest of my life proving that.” Though Perry had been to rehab 15 times before getting sober, he had wanted to show people how he could achieve so much more.

Maggie Wheeler, who played Chandler’s girlfriend Janice in Friends, said the joy Perry brought to “so many” in his “too short lifetime will live on”.

Klaudia K, Year 9