Matthew Perry

Perry also appeared on Ally McBeal (2002) and received Primetime Emmy Award nominations for his performances in The West Wing (2003) and The Ron Clark Story (2006).

Perry was co-creator, co-writer, executive producer, and star of the ABC sitcom Mr. Sunshine, which ran from February to April 2011.

In 2013, Perry received the Champion of Recovery Award from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

He stole money, smoked, let his grades slip, and beat up fellow student and future Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau.

[9][11] Perry later attributed his behavior to his feeling like a family outsider who no longer belonged, once his mother began having children with Morrison.

But his prospects diminished when he moved from Ottawa, at age 15, to live with his father in Los Angeles, where competition was much tougher.

[18] In 1989, he had a three-episode arc on Growing Pains, portraying Carol Seaver's boyfriend Sandy, who dies in a drunk driving incident.

[19] Perry was cast as a regular on the 1990 CBS sitcom Sydney, playing the younger brother of Valerie Bertinelli's character.

[23] After making the pilot and while waiting for the show to air, Perry spent the summer of 1993 performing at the Williamstown Theater Festival alongside Gwyneth Paltrow.

[5] By 2002, he and his co-stars Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, and David Schwimmer were making $1 million per episode.

[citation needed] In 1995, he and Jennifer Aniston appeared in a 60-minute-long promotional video for Microsoft's Windows 95, released on VHS on August 1.

[27] For his performance as Joe Quincy in The West Wing, Perry received two Emmy nominations for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series in 2003 and 2004.

[29] Perry starred in the TNT movie The Ron Clark Story, which premiered August 13, 2006,[30][31] and received a Golden Globe and Emmy nomination for his performance.

Perry played Matt Albie alongside Bradley Whitford's Danny Tripp, a writer-director duo brought in to help save a failing sketch show.

[36] Showtime passed on a pilot called The End of Steve, a dark comedy starring, written, and produced by Perry and Peter Tolan.

The gesture led to game studio Obsidian Entertainment casting him in Fallout: New Vegas as the voice of Benny.

Perry portrayed Ryan King, a sportscaster who tries to move on after the death of his wife through the help of mandatory therapy sessions.

[51] In 2014, Perry made his British TV debut in the one-off comedy program The Dog Thrower, which aired on May 1 as part of Sky Arts' Playhouse Presents.

[52] From 2015 to 2017, Perry starred in, co-wrote, and served as executive producer of a reboot of the sitcom The Odd Couple on CBS.

[55] Perry restructured the play and appeared alongside Jennifer Morrison in its second off-Broadway production, which opened at the Lucille Lortel Theatre on June 5, 2017.

[77] He became addicted to Vicodin after a jet ski accident in 1997, and completed a 28-day rehab program at the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation that year.

[5] In February 2001, Perry paused productions of Friends and Serving Sara for two months[5] so that he could enter in-patient rehabilitation for his addictions to Vicodin, methadone, amphetamines, and alcohol.

[79] Two years later, while attending rehab in Switzerland, Perry faked pain to get a prescription for 1,800 milligrams of hydrocodone per day and was having daily ketamine infusions.

[84] In 2022, he estimated that he had spent $9 million on his addiction, including 14 stomach surgeries, 15 stays in rehab, and therapy twice a week for 30 years and had attended approximately 6,000 Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.

[88] During the COVID-19 pandemic, he launched an apparel line inspired by Friends, with proceeds donated to the World Health Organization's COVID-19 relief fund.

[90][91] On November 3, 2023, Perry's funeral was held at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles where he was buried.

[1] The Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner said in a statement that ...at the high levels of ketamine found in his post-mortem blood specimens, the main lethal effects would be from both cardiovascular overstimulation and respiratory depression... ...drowning contributes due to the likelihood of submersion into the pool as he lapsed into unconsciousness; coronary artery disease contributes due to exacerbation of ketamine induced myocardial effects on the heart.

[99][100] In May 2024, an investigation was opened by the Los Angeles Police Department to determine how Perry obtained the high dose of ketamine that caused his death.

[109][107][106] Chavez would have his medical license suspended the next month and would officially plead guilty at a court hearing held on October 2, 2024.

Perry departing from rehearsal for the 1995 Emmy Awards
Perry at the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards in 2010
Perry in 2012
Perry in 2013
Perry with Valerie Jarrett in 2013