Matthew Perry obituary: The one who made everyone laugh

Published

2 years ago

October 29, 2023

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When the creators of Friends were casting their six stars, the character of Chandler Bing, the one with the jokes, proved among the trickiest. They weren’t sure he was written well enough.

And then in walked Matthew Perry.

“Matthew came in and you went, ‘Oh, well, there you go. Done. Done. That’s the guy’,” David Crane told the Today show in 2019. “When Matthew reads the dialogue, it sparkles,” said Marta Kauffman in the 2021 reunion special. “This was the only guy to play him.”

With impeccable comic timing and the distinctive speech patterns that made Chandler unique, Perry created Friends‘ most quotable character, never failing to nail a punchline. But he also brought warmth, charm and depth to a role that in the wrong hands could have been far less likeable.

The dry humour was often a cover for insecurities and awkwardness, his wisecracks often at his own expense. In real life, he suffered from similar afflictions. Hidden from the public’s view during much of the original run of the show was his struggle with addiction to prescription drugs and alcohol, which he detailed in his memoir, Friends, Lovers And The Big Terrible Thing, published just last year.

“Hi, my name is Matthew, although you may know me by another name. My friends call me Matty. And I should be dead,” he wrote in the opening.

Born in Massachusetts, Perry grew up in Ottawa, Canada, after his mother, a journalist who once served as press secretary to former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, divorced his father and married a Canadian broadcast personality.

As a child, he became a top-ranked junior tennis player before moving to Los Angeles to pursue acting and improvisational comedy.

When Friends was in the works, Perry was under contract to star in another new series, about luggage handlers working at Los Angeles Airport in the year 2194. But the Friends creators knew they had to have him. It is impossible to imagine Chandler played by anyone else.

“It was as if someone had followed me around for a year, stealing my jokes, copying my mannerisms, photocopying my world-weary yet witty view of life,” said Perry of his character. “It wasn’t that I thought I could play Chandler; I was Chandler.”

When the futuristic airport show failed to make it off the ground, he joined the series that would change his life.

Perry, along with co-stars Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow and David Schwimmer, became one of Hollywood’s most recognisable actors. Relative unknowns before the show launched in 1994, their rise to fame was meteoric; each star reportedly earned $1m per episode at the height of the show’s popularity.

Like all the best ideas, the premise was simple: a close-knit group of young adults who shared space in one another’s apartments and met for coffee at Central Perk, a fictional Manhattan cafe. It was real life.

One of Chandler’s major storylines involved his initially clandestine romance with Monica (Cox), which the four other friends – Rachel (Aniston), Phoebe (Kudrow), Joey (LeBlanc) and Ross (Schwimmer) – each discovered one by one. The One Where Everybody Finds Out is one of the show’s greatest episodes.

By the time it came to an end after 10 seasons, Chandler and Monica were married, about to start parenthood, reflecting the journey of the group of friends from single New Yorkers to serious relationships and starting families.

Friends remains one of the biggest TV hits of all time and has taken on a new life – and found surprising popularity with younger fans – in recent years on streaming services. Perry received an Emmy nomination for his portrayal of Chandler and two more for appearances as associate White House counsel Joe Quincy in The West Wing.

His TV work also included the short-lived Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip – written by The West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin – while he starred in several films including Fools Rush In opposite Salma Hayek and his father John, 17 Again, and The Whole Nine Yards alongside Bruce Willis.

However, like his five co-stars, Perry will always be remembered for Friends. It was the show that made him – but with its success also came great pressure, which hit him the hardest. Aniston once described him as “one of the most sensitive people I’ve ever met”.

“Friends was huge,” Perry wrote in his memoir. “I couldn’t jeopardise that. I loved the script. I loved my co-actors … I loved everything about the show but I was struggling with my addictions which only added to my sense of shame.

“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…

“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.”

He also recounted how he had to be driven back to rehab right after shooting the episode of Chandler and Monica’s wedding. But when the book came out, he seemed to have overcome his demons, announcing at the time that he had been clean and sober for 18 months.

Following his sudden death at the age of 54, there will be thousands of clips shared across social media in the coming days, remembering Perry as Chandler (forgive the non-official titles here): The One Where No One Knew What He Did For A Living. The One With Julia Roberts. All The Ones With Janice. The One Where He Almost Fake-Kissed Phoebe. The One With The Nubbin. The One In The Box. The One With The Shark Porn. The One With The Mr T Bracelet. The One With The Proposal. The One With The Almost Wedding. The One With The Actual Wedding. The One Where They Said Goodbye.

There are too many to list.

Friends was a series greater than the sum of its brilliant parts, thanks to the chemistry between its stars. Each brought something unique, and Perry was the sarcastic, comic beat of the show.

“Matthew is one of the funniest people I’ve ever met in my life,” Kudrow said of her co-star in 2002. “Most of our hard laughs came from Matthew.” He was a “true gift” to comedy, as he has been described in tributes, whose “legacy will live on through countless generations”.

He was the one who made everyone laugh.

Entertainment

Olivia Colman, Javier Bardem, Tilda Swinton among 1,300 filmmakers to boycott Israeli film companies

Published

5 hours ago

September 8, 2025

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Olivia Colman, Javier Bardem, Tilda Swinton among 1,300 filmmakers to boycott Israeli film companies

Olivia Colman, Javier Bardem, Susan Sarandon and Tilda Swinton are among more than 1,300 filmmakers who are refusing to work with Israeli film companies they say are “implicated in genocide” in Gaza.

Screenwriters, producers, actors and directors have signed a pledge created by Film Makers for Palestine in the latest show of celebrities speaking out against the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

They will boycott Israeli film institutions and companies, which they say are “implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people”.

Some of the biggest names in film have signed the pledge, Riz Ahmed, Miriam Margolyes, Juliet Stevenson and Ken Loach also among them.

Writer-directors such as The Lobster director Yorgos Lanthimos and British filmmaker Asif Kapadia, who made documentaries Senna, Amy and Diego Maradona, and producers such as two-time BAFTA winner James Wilson and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy producer Robyn Slovo have also signed the pledge.

Palme d’Or and BAFTA-winning producer Rebecca O’Brien, who produced I, Daniel Blake with Ken Loach, told Sky News: “For decades, Israeli festivals, broadcasters, and production companies have played their role in masking and justifying Israel’s system of apartheid and its war crimes – some through direct government partnerships.

“I refuse to let my work be used to whitewash a genocide.”

Israel has repeatedly said its actions in Gaza are justified as a means of self-defence and denied they amount to genocide.

After the world’s leading association of genocide scholars, the International Association of Genocide Scholars, declared Israel is committing genocide in Gaza last week, the Israeli foreign ministry said it was based on “Hamas lies” and poor research.

The boycott pledge urges the industry to “refuse silence, racism, and dehumanisation and to do everything humanly possible to end complicity in their oppression”.

The declaration was inspired by Filmmakers United Against Apartheid, founded by award-winning filmmakers Martin Scorsese and Jonathan Demme in 1987, which led to more than 100 prominent filmmakers refusing to screen their films in apartheid South Africa.

The pledge is just the latest show of support for Gazans and against their treatment by Israel from celebrities.

In May, Sky News exclusively reported a letter signed by more than 300 famous names urging Sir Keir Starmer to “end UK complicity” in Gaza.

Benedict Cumberbatch, Annie Lennox, Gary Lineker and Dua Lipa were among the public figures joining leading doctors, academics, campaign groups and a Holocaust survivor.

In June, more celebrities added their names to the letter to try to push the government to act after they said nothing had changed.

At the time, a UK government spokesman said it “strongly” opposes Israel’s military expansion in Gaza and called on the Israeli government to “cease its offensive and immediately allow for unfettered access to humanitarian aid”.

The spokesman also said the government suspended export licences to Israel last year “for items used in military operations in Gaza” and called for a ceasefire agreement.

More than 64,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Strip since the war began, Hamas-run Gaza health authorities say.

The war was sparked by Hamas’s attack on Israel, when militants killed 1,200 people and took around 250 hostages.

Of the 48 hostages still held in Gaza, 20 are believed to still be alive.

Over the past few weeks, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have been preparing to intensify the war after the government vowed to gain full military control of Gaza to defeat Hamas.

Entertainment

Rick Davies: Supertramp singer and co-founder dies

Published

8 hours ago

September 8, 2025

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Rick Davies: Supertramp singer and co-founder dies

Rick Davies, a founding member of the British rock group Supertramp, has died.

The 81-year-old, who had been battling multiple myeloma – a type of blood cancer – for the last decade, died on Saturday, a statement from the band said.

The band’s lead singer wrote many of their hits, including Breakfast In America and The Logical Song, alongside Roger Hodgson.

The band’s statement, posted with a photo of Davies walking his dog by the sea and soundtrack of Goodbye Stranger, paid tribute to both his musical legacy and his warm personality.

The statement read: “As co-writer, along with partner Roger Hodgson, he was the voice and pianist behind Supertramp’s most iconic songs, leaving an indelible mark on rock music history.

“His soulful vocals and unmistakable touch on the Wurlitzer became the heartbeat of the band’s sound.”

“Beyond the stage, Rick was known for his warmth, resilience, and devotion to his wife Sue, with whom he shared over five decades,” the band said.

“After facing serious health challenges, which kept him unable to continue touring as Supertramp, he enjoyed performing with his hometown buds as Ricky and the Rockets.

“Rick’s music and legacy continue to inspire many and bear testament to the fact that great songs never die, they live on.”

Born in Swindon, Wiltshire, in 1944, Davies’s love of music began in his childhood, the group said, listening to Gene Krupa’s Drummin’ Man, which sparked a lifelong passion for jazz, blues and rock ‘n’ roll.

Davies and Hodgson formed the band that would become Supertramp in 1969.

The line-up changed numerous times over the years, with the band best remembered for the period from 1973 to 1983, when Davies and Hodgson performed with Dougie Thomson on bass, Bob Siebenberg on drums and John Helliwell on saxophone.

Crime of the Century, their breakthrough album, came out in 1974, followed by their biggest hit in 1979 with Breakfast In America, and hit singles The Logical Song, Breakfast in America, Goodbye Stranger and Take the Long Way Home.

Amid creative disputes, Hodgson left the band to go solo in 1983. Davies eventually became the only constant member throughout its history.

While a reunion tour was announced in 2015, it was cancelled when Davies was diagnosed with cancer.

He settled a royalties lawsuit in 2023 after a long-running dispute with ex-bandmates. Just last month, a US appeals court ruled that Hodgson must share royalties for three of Supertramp’s songs with his ex-bandmates.

Davies leaves behind his wife Sue, who had managed the band since the mid-80s.

Entertainment

MTV VMAs in pictures: Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande and Sabrina Carpenter triumph as tribute paid to Ozzy Osbourne

Published

11 hours ago

September 8, 2025

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MTV VMAs in pictures: Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande and Sabrina Carpenter triumph as tribute paid to Ozzy Osbourne

Lady Gaga has led the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs), with four wins including artist of the year. Ariana Grande and Sabrina Carpenter took three awards each.

It was a night dominated by women, with female stars bagging all the awards, with the exception of Bruno Mars for his collaborations with Gaga and Blackpink member Rose.

Mariah Carey collected her first-ever VMA award, swiftly followed by a second when she was awarded the Video Vanguard award.

And tribute was paid to Ozzy Osbourne, who died in July, with Yungblud and Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Joe Perry performing Black Sabbath classics, introduced by Jack Osbourne and his four daughters.

Here’s the best of the MTV VMAs, in pictures.