Actor Matthew Perry, beloved star of the top-rated 1990s US television sitcom Friends as the wise-cracking Chandler Bing, died on Saturday after apparently drowning in a hot tub. He was 54.
The Los Angeles Times and TMZ.com, citing law enforcement sources, reported that the American-Canadian performer was found dead in a jacuzzi at his Los Angeles home.
The news brought an outpouring of grief from fellow celebrities and other high-profile personalities.
Photo: AP
“Oh no!!! Matthew Perry!! You sweet, troubled soul!! May you find and happiness in Heaven, making everyone laugh with your singular wit!!!,” actor Mira Sorvino wrote on social media platform X.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who was a former schoolmate of Perry’s in Ottawa, described the latter’s passing as “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. “Thanks for all the laughs, Matthew. You were loved — and you will be missed.”
NBC News, citing an unnamed representative of Perry and a law enforcement source, said he was found dead at his home in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles.
“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.”
Perry was best known for his longtime role as Chandler in the internationally successful Friends, which ran for 10 seasons from 1994 to 2004, costarring Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc and Lisa Kudrow.
The series, which for a time was the most watched US television program in prime time, made international celebrities out of all six castmates, who played a close-knit group of young adults who spent time at each other’s apartments and at Central Perk, a fictional Manhattan cafe.
Hidden from the public’s view during much of the show’s original run was Perry’s prolonged struggle with addiction to prescription drugs and alcohol, which he detailed in his 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, which was released last year.
In a New York Times interview published in October last year, Perry said he had been clean for 18 months: “I’ve probably spent $9 million or something trying to get sober.”
Perry’s motion picture credits included Fools Rush In, The Whole Nine Yards, Almost Heroes and Three to Tango.
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today accepted an invitation from Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to lead a delegation to China next month, saying she hopes to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations and bring stability to the Taiwan Strait. “I am grateful and happy to accept this invitation,” Cheng said in a statement from the KMT chairperson’s office. Cheng said she hopes both sides can work together to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations, enhance exchange and cooperation, bring stability to the Taiwan Strait and improve people’s livelihoods. At today's news conference, Cheng said any efforts to
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
RSS