The world was stunned to learn of Matthew Perry’s death on October 28. The beloved Friends icon was just 54 years old when he died due to an apparent drowning at his Los Angeles home. First responders were called to the scene of a cardiac arrest, before Perry was found in his hot tub. Mourning fans are wondering just how an untimely death of an iconic actor occurred.
How Did Matthew Perry Die?
Perry died at his Los Angeles home, apparently in the hot tub. He was found in the body of water, according to law enforcement sources who spoke to TMZ, of which he posted about just days prior. An official cause of death has not been released by the Los Angeles Coroner as of publication.
There were no drugs at the scene according to sources, a direct reflection of Perry’s long-documented addiction that riddled his time while on the hit sitcom that catapulted him to fame.
Inside Matthew Perry’s Health Struggles
The Friends alum was open about his struggles with substance abuse, admitting that he was taking up to 55 Vicodin a day and weighing in at 128 lbs. At age 24 – right as he was cast on Friends – Perry’s alcohol addiction began to take hold.
“I could handle it, kind of. But by the time I was 34, I was really entrenched in a lot of trouble,” he wrote in his 2022 memoir, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing. “But there were years that I was sober during that time. Season 9 was the year that I was sober the whole way through. And guess which season I got nominated for best actor? I was like, ‘That should tell me something.’”
However, Perry’s addiction would not stand the test of time. “I didn’t know how to stop,” he reflected in his book. “If the police came over to my house and said, ‘If you drink tonight, we’re going to take you to jail,’ I’d start packing. I couldn’t stop because the disease and the addiction is progressive. So it gets worse and worse as you grow older.”
Throughout his struggles, however, the cast of Friends was by his side. They were “patient” and “understanding,” Perry wrote in his memoir.
“It’s like penguins. Penguins, in nature, when one is sick, or when one is very injured, the other penguins surround it and prop it up. They walk around it until that penguin can walk on its own. That’s kind of what the cast did for me.”
The majority of the Friends cast – including Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer – have not yet publicly responded to Perry’s untimely death as of publication.
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