Morgan Fairchild remembers TV son Matthew Perry, the audience’s ‘best friend’

Morgan Fairchild, who played Chandler Bing’s mother on “Friends,” paid tribute on Monday to the actor who portrayed him, Matthew Perry.

Perry died Saturday at his Los Angeles home. He was 54.

During an appearance on “CNN This Morning,” Fairchild shared memories of her first day on the “Friends” set after she snagged the role of Nora Bing, the mom of Perry’s character.

“The show was not a huge hit yet when I started working on it,” she recalled. “He came bounding over to me, literally bounding like a big puppy and said, ‘Oh, you won’t remember me. I used to visit you on the set of ‘Flamingo Road’ and ‘Falcon Crest’ with my dad!’”

His father was the actor John Bennett Perry and Fairchild was blown by the fact that the younger Perry was the little boy she had seen on set.

She described Matthew Perry as a “warm,” “wonderful, “funny” and “creative” person. She said she was surprised to realize that it was almost 30 years ago that they worked together.

“We’ve all grown up together,” she said. “The audience has grown up with Matt as their best friend, the person they wanted to be, the person they wanted to meet, know and have as a friend.”

Fairchild also praised Perry for his openness about his struggles with addiction, which he documented in his book, “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir.”

“I think that one of the bravest things that he did in his career and his life was to go public, to write this book, to reach out to other people, to try to be of help to other people,” she said. “And that was one of the most endearing things about him.”

“I thought it was terribly brave of him to want that to be part of his legacy as a human being as not only the joy he brought to people, the great acting, the great fun parts, but also the reaching out to try and help other people,” Fairchild added. “The being honest about what he was facing in life because to me that’s what we’re all really here for, that is to help each other to get through this and he was doing that big time.”

Fairchild said she’s been hearing from “Friends” viewers who still think of her as “Chandler’s mom” and want to express their condolences.

“He was just a very endearing, fun, wonderful, wonderful guy and I send my love and condolences to his family,” she said. “I just felt that I should do something because for millions of people who watch the show, they sometimes think of me as his mom.”

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