Matthew Perry Left Behind Much More Than Just His Role on ‘Friends’
Matthew Perry death
Mathew Perry, most known for playing Chandler Bing in the famous show called ‘Friends’ died on October 28th, 2023. His assistant found him dead in his hot tub and it was very unclear on how he died.
Investigators performed an autopsy right after his death and the results just came back Friday, December 15th.
High levels of ketamine were found in Perry’s system. Ketamine can cause heart rate and blood pressure to increase making it hard to breathe, which most likely caused him to die. It is also said that when you are on a drug like ketamine a hot tub isn’t the best thing.
“Using sedative drugs in a pool or hot tub, especially when you’re alone, is extremely risky and, sadly, here it’s fatal,” said Andrew Stolbach, a toxicologist.
Drug addiction
In 2022, Perry wrote a memoir called, Friends, Lovers, and The Big Terrible Thing. In which he told his whole life story and opened up to many things, including his drug addiction.
His drug abuse started when he began drinking, which was when he was fourteen.
In 1997, he got into a jet ski accident and was prescribed Vicodin. This was how pills entered the picture for Perry. In his memoir, he mentions that he was up to taking 55 Vicodin a day and would make up things such as migraines to get more of it.
That same year he went to rehab for the first time at the Betty Ford facility in Minnesota for 28 days. But even that didn’t solve the problem.
Perry was abusing drugs throughout all of his time playing the role of Chandler Bing on ‘Friends’. He also mentioned this in an interview, “I didn't watch the show and haven't watched the show, because I can go, 'drinking, opiates, drinking, cocaine' — like I could tell season by season by how I looked.”. He also mentioned that he can not recall three years of his time on ‘Friends’ due to memory loss from the drug abuse.
In 2018, he had a two percent chance of living after his colon exploded. Luckily he survived after being put in an ECMO machine and living colostomy bag for nine months.
Throughout Perry’s lifetime, he attended 6,000 AA meetings, been to rehab 15 times, has been on life support, has been in detox 65 times, and has had 14 surgeries.
Perry spent millions of dollars trying to get sober and had friends and family supporting him through it. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t stick with it.
What Perry Wanted To Be Remembered For
“But when I die, as far as my so-called accomplishments go, it would be nice if Friends were listed far behind the things I did to try and help other people.”- Matthew Perry, Friends, Lovers, and The Big Terrible Thing.
Mathew Perry was so much more than a character on a funny TV show. Perry did so much to help people and was said to be an amazing person by his friends and family. “Matthew is one of the funniest people I’ve ever met in my life. He’s charming and hilarious. Most of our hard laughs came from Matthew,” Said Lisa Kudrow.
Perry did so much to help other people who struggle with addiction. He created the Perry House in Malibu, which is a house that men who struggle with abuse can go to to get sober. He also wrote a play called The End of Longing, which was an exaggerated form of him as a drunk. He wrote it as a message to the world and to people who struggle like him. His memoir Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, helped people by showing them that they are not alone in their struggle.
Sometimes, we as people seem to forget that our favorite actors in our favorite movies and TV shows are also people. They are people who have struggles in life. Mathew Perry is an example of that. Instead of remembering him as Chandler Bing from ‘Friends’, let’s remember him as a strong, kind, caring, and amazing person. Let’s remember him for all the incredible things he did to help people. Just how we would remember someone who is a friend or family member.