Multiple news sources are reporting the death of actor Matthew Perry, who played Chandler Bing on the groundbreaking television series Friends. His age was given as 54.
The Los Angeles Times, TMZ, and other media outlets reported on Saturday that Perry's body was discovered at his Los Angeles home, and that he had apparently drowned there.
Perry fought addiction privately. His book Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, published last year, chronicled his decades-long drinking and drug usage. The book, devoted to addicts, detailed his horrific drug use and health issues: He underwent 14 surgeries, 65 detoxes, and half his life in treatment.
The actor said last year in an interview with The New York Times, "Whenever I bumped into something that I didn't really want to share, I would think of the people that I would be helping, and it would keep me going."
Perry states in his biography, "I felt like I was gonna die if the live audience didn't laugh, and that's not healthy for sure." "If no one laughed at a line, I would sweat and convulse. Missing the laugh would worry me immensely. Every night I felt that. Under pressure, I suffered. I knew just one of the six showmakers was sick."
Quoted from an unaired edition of Nightline, co-star and friend Lisa Kudrow said, "Matthew Perry was always the one trying to keep everyone else happy."
Two of Perry's Emmy nominations were for his dramatic performance as assistant White House counsel on The West Wing, and one was for his role as Ross on Friends.
Although he was born in Massachusetts, the actor spent most of his childhood moving throughout Canada, living with his divorced parents in both Los Angeles and Montreal. Over in Canada, he climbed to the top of the junior tennis rankings.
The actor reportedly has a pickleball court built at his new house in the Pacific Palisades later in life.