Matthew Perry’s Parents Are ‘Heartbroken’ After Their Son’s Death In Apparent Drowning
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A tragic loss. Matthew Perry’s parents were on the scene immediately after they found out about their son’s death. On October 28, 2023, Matthew Perry died from an apparent drowning in a hot tub in his house in Los Angeles, California. He was 54 years old.
Born to John Bennett Perry and Suzanne Morrison, Matthew 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.
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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 overnight alongside his fellow cast members Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, and David Schwimmer. Perry was vocal about his drug addiction after the show’s airing and chronicled his life in his memoir Friends, Lovers, and The Big Terrible Thing.
So who are Matthew Perry’s parents and how did they react to his death?
Matthew Perry’s parent’s reaction to his death
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How did Matthew Perry’s parent react to his death? Matthew Perry’s parents appeared at the scene right after the apparent drowning. According to Daily Mail, Matthew Perry’s parents seemed distraught as they arrived to their son’s house.
The family issued a statement to People about Matthew’s passing. “We are heartbroken by the tragic loss of our beloved son and brother,” the family says. “Matthew brought so much joy to the world, both as an actor and a friend.” They added: “You all meant so much to him and we appreciate the tremendous outpouring of love.” Just days before his death, Matthew posed with his father in a picture on Instagram. He captioned the post, “Here is me, and my father John, both holding a beverage.”
Matthew Perry was born to John Bennett Perry, an actor, and Suzanne Morrison on August 19, 1969. The couple separated before Matthew turned 1, and he spent his time between Ottowa, Canada with his mother and Los Angeles, California with his father. “When I was 5 years old, my parents put me on a plane alone from Montreal to Los Angeles. And I was terrified,” Matthew told People. “My feet didn’t even touch the floor. And then when I saw the lights of the city, I knew we were landing, that my dad was going to pick me up, and I’d have a parent again.” Suzanne was a press secretary for Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and Perry recalled fighting a young Justin Trudeau in the schoolyard in a Jimmy Kimmel Live appearance in 2017.
Suzanne went on to marry Dateline‘s Keith Morrison who was supportive throughout Matthew’s life. Matthew later settled in Los Angeles, California with his father to pursue his footsteps into acting. The Friends actor started his battle with drug addiction after he had a skiing accident on the movie set of When Fools Rush In in 1997. The doctor prescribed the drug for his pain, but as it’s a highly addictive substance, Perry’s use escalated to taking 55 pills. Along with the Vicodin addiction, he suffered from alcoholism. He recalled his appearance on the show, “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.”
In 2018, Perry’s colon exploded due to an opioid overdose and he was in a coma for two weeks. “The doctors told my family that I had a two percent chance to live,” he told People. “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.” He was in the hospital with four other people who used the machine, and he was the only one who survived. “So the big question is why? Why was I the one? There has to be some kind of reason.”
“They were both standing at the edge of my bed,” Matthew recalled about seeing his parents together visiting him to Diane Sawyer on ABC News in October 2022. “I was like, ‘Whoa, I must be really sick for this to be happening.’ ”
How did Matthew Perry die?
TMZ first reported of Matthew Perry’s death. Initial reports into how Matthew Perry died claimed that there were no drugs found at the scene and no foul play was involved, however, an investigation into his cause of death is ongoing. 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.”
While Perry’s cause of death remains unconfirmed, many fans of the Friends star can’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, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing
‘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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