How Did Matthew Perry Die? A New Investigation Has Been Launched
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After his tragic passing, fans of Friends and beyond are all asking the same thing: how did Matthew Perry die? The star of the beloved sitcom was only 54, leaving many with questions about the circumstances of his death. Up ahead, we’re sharing all of the answers we know so far.
In 2022, Perry came out with a memoir titled Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir, which detailed his struggles with drug and alcohol addiction alongside his rise to fame. In the book, he recalled a near-death experience at the age of 49, when his colon burst from overuse of opioids. The actor spent two weeks in a coma, and another five months recovering in the hospital.
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As the world continues to remember Matthew Perry, we’re delving into the details surrounding his tragic passing. For everything we know about Matthew Perry’s cause of death and how he died, keep on reading below.
How did Matthew Perry die?
Matthew Perry died at the age of 54 from an apparent drowning, according to TMZ. The publication reported that the Friends actor was found dead in a hot tub at his home in Los Angeles, California, on Saturday, October 28, 2023.
On December 15, 2023, the full toxicology report was revealed, finding his cause of death was due to “the acute effects of ketamine,” according to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office. Contributing factors in the Friends actor’s death included drowning, coronary artery disease and the effects of buprenorphine (used to treat opioid use disorder). The manner of death was ruled an accident.
According to Variety, Perry had been undergoing ketamine infusion therapy prior to his death, reportedly for depression and anxiety. The toxicology report adds: “At the high levels of ketamine found in his postmortem blood specimens, the main lethal effects would be from both cardiovascular overstimulation and respiratory depression.”
Initial reports claimed that there were no drugs found at the scene and no foul play was involved, however, an investigation into how Matthew Perry died is still ongoing. Having completed the autopsy, investigators are still waiting on the complete toxicology results. On November 1, 2023, TMZ reported that law enforcement ran a less-in-depth test on Perry which revealed he did not have fentanyl or meth in his system. However, it will take months to conduct more in-depth tests to see if other illegal drugs were present in his blood or if he took prescription drugs at a higher dose.
The medical examiner updated its online record for Perry on the afternoon of October 29, listing his cause of death as “deferred.”
“In cases where the cause of death cannot be determined at the time of autopsy, a deferred certificate will be issued until additional studies have been completed,” according to the LA coroner’s guidelines.
A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Fire Department told CNN in a Monday, October 30, statement: “A bystander had brought the man’s head above the water and gotten him to the edge, then Firefighters removed him from the water upon their arrival,” they said. “A rapid medical assessment, sadly, revealed the man was deceased prior to first responder arrival.”
After Perry’s death first made headlines, more information continued to emerge about his passing, with TMZ following up their story with details about the actor’s final hours. The outlet reported that Perry spent his morning playing pickleball and arrived home after a two-hour session on the court. When he got home, he reportedly sent his assistant out on an errand. When his assistant returned about two hours later, he found Perry unresponsive and called 911.
A rep for the Los Angeles Police Department confirmed the call without identifying Perry, telling Entertainment Tonight, “West L.A. officers responded to [a residence] at 4:10 p.m. for a Death Investigation of a male in his 50s.”
Warner Bros. issued a statement about Perry following his death. “We are devastated by the passing of our dear friend Matthew Perry. Matthew was an incredibly gifted actor and an indelible part of the Warner Bros. Television Group family,” the statement read. “The impact of his comedic genius was felt around the world, and his legacy will live on in the hearts of so many. This is a heartbreaking day, and we send our love to his family, his loved ones, and all of his devoted fans.”
What was Matthew Perry’s cause of death?
On May 21, 2024, Matthew Perry’s cause of death was revealed to be from the acute effects of the anesthetic ketamine. “At the high levels of ketamine found in his postmortem blood specimens, the main lethal effects would be from both cardiovascular overstimulation and respiratory depression,” the report, obtained by THR, stated.
The autopsy also listed drowning, coronary artery disease and buprenorphine (used to treat opioid addiction) effects as contributing factors to his death. Police are looking into how he obtained the drug, as he’d been undergoing ketamine infusion therapy, which is said to help with depression, anxiety, PTSD, drug and alcohol problems, chronic pain and more. His last session had been a week and a half before he died.
According to the autopsy, “the ketamine in his system at death could not be from that infusion therapy since ketamine’s half-life is three to four hours or less.”
Previously, many fans of the Friends star couldn’t help but wonder if his sudden passing had anything to do with his past health struggles—including his battles with addiction to alcohol and Vicodin. Perry’s battle with drug addiction started after he had a skiing accident on the set of the film When Fools Rush In in 1997.
The doctor prescribed Vicodin for his pain, but as a highly addictive substance, Perry’s use escalated to taking up to 55 pills a day. Along with his opioid addiction, he suffered from alcoholism. In his 2022 memoir Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, he explained how to tell which substance he was using based on his appearance on Friends: “When I’m carrying weight, it’s alcohol; when I’m skinny, it’s pills. When I have a goatee, it’s lots of pills.”
Five years before his passing, Perry was also open about the fact that he already had his fair share of brushes with death. He revealed in his memoir that he almost died after suffering a gastrointestinal perforation when his colon burst from opioid overuse. “The doctors told my family that I had a two percent chance to live,” he told People in 2022. “I was put on a thing called an ECMO machine, which does all the breathing for your heart and your lungs. And that’s called a Hail Mary. No one survives that.”
“There were five people put on an ECMO machine that night and the other four died and I survived,” he added. “So the big question is why? Why was I the one? There has to be some kind of reason.”
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, Perry had another near death experience while staying at a rehab center in Switzerland when he had to get surgery. During his procedure, he was given a shot of propofol. After 11 hours, he woke up in a different hospital and was told that the propofol had stopped his heart for five minutes. The long CPR process broke eight of his ribs.
While Perry often didn’t disclose how long he stayed sober, the actor was always open about his relapses. He had been to rehab 15 times, attended 6,000 AA meetings, been in detox 65 times, and spent between $7 to $9 million trying to get sober.
“It’s important, but if you lose your sobriety, it doesn’t mean you lose all that time and education,” he said. “Your sober date changes, but that’s all that changes. You know everything you knew before, as long as you were able to fight your way back without dying, you learn a lot.”
In his interview with People in 2022, Perry revealed that he wrote his memoir for anyone else struggling with addiction. “I say in the book that if I did die it would shock people, but it wouldn’t surprise anybody. And that’s what I’m doing with writing this book. That’s why I wanted to do it,” he said at the time. “I wanted to talk about the highs and the lows because people are suffering out there and maybe if they hear a story from somebody they’ve seen on TV that’s worse than their’s or just the same of their’s, they’ll be filed with hope, which is the key thing.”
Friends Cast reaction to Matthew Perry’s death
Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, Courteney Cox along with Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer shared a joint tribute in the days after Perry’s death. “We are all so utterly devastated by the loss of Matthew. We were more than just cast mates. We are a family,” the cast shared in a statement to Us Weekly. “There is so much to say, but right now we’re going to take a moment to grieve and process this unfathomable loss.”
The actor’s castmates, who starred alongside Perry on the NBC sitcom for 10 seasons from 1994 to 2004, all arrived to say goodbye to their friend at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles on November 3, 2023. The cemetery is just across the road from Warner Bros Studios, where Friends was filmed.
On November 14, 2023, Courteney shared one of her favorite moments on Friends with her on-screen love interest. “I am so grateful for every moment I had with you Matty and I miss you every day,” she wrote in the caption. “When you work with someone as closely as I did with Matthew, there are thousands of moments I wish I could share. For now here’s one of my favorites.”
The scene was the first glimpse into Monica and Chandler’s love story as they were hiding from her brother Ross. “To give a little backstory, Chandler and Monica were supposed to have a one night fling in London. But because of the audience’s reaction, it became the beginning of their love story.
Matt LeBlanc broke his silence on the death of his co-star on Instagram on the same day. Matthew It is with a heavy heart I say goodbye,” he wrote in the caption. “The times we had together are honestly among the favorite times of my life. It was an honor to share the stage with you and to call you my friend. I will always smile when I think of you and I’ll never forget you. Never. Spread your wings and fly brother you’re finally free. Much love. And I guess you’re keeping the 20 bucks you owe me.”
On November 15, 2023, a few weeks after Perry’s death, Aniston shared a text he’d sent her “out of nowhere” that showed how much they cared for each other.
“Oh boy this one has cut deep… Having to say goodbye to our Matty has been an insane wave of emotions that I’ve never experienced before. We all experience loss at some point in our lives. Loss of life or loss of love. Being able to really SIT in this grief allows you to feel the moments of joy and gratitude for having loved someone that deep. And we loved him deeply,” she wrote alongside a photo of them together, laughing and smiling.
Aniston continued, “He was such a part of our DNA. We were always the 6 of us. This was a chosen family that forever changed the course of who we were and what our path was going to be. For Matty, he KNEW he loved to make people laugh. As he said himself, if he didn’t hear the ‘laugh’ he thought he was going to die. His life literally depended on it. And boy did he succeed in doing just that. He made all of us laugh. And laugh hard. In the last couple weeks, I’ve been pouring over our texts to one another. Laughing and crying then laughing again. I’ll keep them forever and ever. I found one text that he sent me out of nowhere one day. It says it all.”
The text in question reads, “Making you laugh just made my day. It made my day,” alongside a photo of the two of them giggling while reading a script. “Matty, I love you so much and I know you are now completely at peace and out of any pain,” Aniston concluded. “I talk to you every day… sometimes I can almost hear you saying ‘could you BE any crazier?’ Rest little brother. You always made my day…”
Lisa Kudrow posted a Polaroid photo of her with the late co-star on Instagram. She wrote in the caption,”Shot the pilot, Friends Like Us, got picked up then immediately, we were at the NBC Upfronts. Then…
You suggested we play poker AND made it so much fun while we initially bonded. Thank you for that.
Thank you for making me laugh so hard at something you said, that my muscles ached, and tears poured down my face EVERY DAY.
Thank you for your open heart in a six way relationship that required compromise. And a lot of “talking.”
Thank you for showing up at work when you weren’t well and then, being completely brilliant.
Thank you for the best 10 years a person gets to have.
Thank you for trusting me.
Thank you for all I learned about GRACE and LOVE through knowing you.
Thank you for the time I got to have with you, Matthew.”
David Schwimmer posted a still of the two on the show on Instagram “Thank you for ten incredible years of laughter and creativity,” he wrote on the post. “I will never forget your impeccable comic timing and delivery. You could take a straight line of dialogue and bend it to your will, resulting in something so entirely original and unexpectedly funny it still astonishes. And you had heart. Which you were generous with, and shared with us, so we could create a family out of six strangers.”
He continued, “This photo is from one of my favorite moments with you. Now it makes me smile and grieve at the same time. I imagine you up there, somewhere, in the same white suit, hands in your pockets, looking around—’Could there BE any more clouds?'”
Born in 1969, Matthew Perry was raised by John Bennett Perry, an actor, and Suzanne Marie Langford, the former press secretary to Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. His early life was divided between Montreal and Los Angeles, following his parents’ separation when he was just a year old.
Perry’s journey in the entertainment world began as a child actor. When he was 15, he decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and try out an acting career by moving to Los Angeles. Perry landed his first sitcom role on the show Second Chance (which later became Boys Will Be Boys) and went on to secure roles in series like Charles in Charge and Beverly Hills 90210. By 1988, he had already made his big screen debut in the film A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon, where he starred alongside the late River Phoenix.
However, it was the role of Chandler Bing in the legendary sitcom Friends that really catapulted Perry to superstardom. Premiering on NBC in 1994, the show about six single New Yorkers navigating the complexities of adulthood quickly became a cultural phenomenon. Perry, who was only 25 years old when the series began, became a household name seemingly overnight alongside his fellow cast members Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, and David Schwimmer. And the momentum didn’t let up: by the series’ end, the finale episode drew in over 50 million live viewers, and each of the Friends cast members had salaries of over $1 million per episode.
As Chandler Bing—the witty roommate to LeBlanc’s Joey Tribbiani, and eventual love interest of Cox’s Monica Geller—Perry was an essential piece of the Friends ensemble. His dry humor and distinctive delivery etched Chandler’s place into pop culture, with catchphrases and memorable moments that fans still cherish today. Could he be any more perfect for the role?
Along with 10 seasons of Friends under his belt, Perry’s acting credits included the romantic comedy Fools Rush In starring Salma Hayek, The Whole Nine Yards starring Bruce Willis and Amanda Peet, and Aaron Sorkin’s The West Wing and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.
Friends, Lovers, and The Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry
‘Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing’ by Matthew Perry
For more about Matthew Perry, read his memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing. The New York Times bestseller takes readers through Perry’s life and career, from his childhood dreams of becoming an actor to how he was cast in Friends to his struggle with addiction and his stints in rehab. “Hi, my name is Matthew, although you may know me by another name. My friends call me Matty. And I should be dead,” Perry writes in the book. Told in his own words for the first time ever, the memoir is an “unflinchingly honest, moving, and uproariously funny” account of Perry’s trials and triumphs. Described as an “unforgettable memoir that is both intimate and eye-opening,” Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing is a must-read for Friends fans.
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, help is available. Call the SAMHSA National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357) for free, confidential support.
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