Matthew Perry once confessed he’d give up all his fame and money in an instant to cure the substance addiction he’d battled since he was 14.
“The fact that I would trade it all to not have this disease is true,” said the star, who spent more than $14 million trying to get clean over the years – including 15 trips to rehab, 6000 visits to AA and even a stint on life support.
Matthew Perry founded Perry House, a sober facility for struggling men and used his old Malibu beach home to house them.
(Credit: Getty)In fact, while it’s the comfort food of TV for so many people, heartbreakingly, Matthew admitted he could never bring himself to watch Friends – the sitcom that made him world famous and saw him banking $1.57 million an episode by 2002.
“I didn’t watch the show, and haven’t watched the show, because I could go, ‘Drinking, opiates, drinking, cocaine.’ I could tell season by season, by how I looked. That’s why I don’t wanna watch it, because that’s what I see,” Matthew said in a 2022 interview.
Viewers, though, couldn’t get enough of bungling Chandler Bing.
“What a loss. The world will miss you Matthew Perry,” his Friends co-star, Maggie Wheeler, who played his onscreen girlfriend Janice Litman-Goralnik, wrote on social media while remembering Matt.
“The joy you brought to so many in your too short lifetime will live on.”
“I love that guy!” Matt LeBlanc said of Matthew. “I can not see him for five years and then get in a room together and still have that shorthand with each other.”
(Credit: Supplied)The Canadian-raised actor – who leaves behind a large extended family – acknowledged the affect he had on pop culture during Friends’ 10-season run from 1994 to 2004.
“Chandler Bing transformed the way that America spoke,” Matthew said of his iconic character – a role he scored when he was just 24. “If you’re going to be typecast, that’s the way to do it.”
But Matthew didn’t want his legacy to just be the laughs he’d created.
“The best thing about me, bar none, is that if somebody comes to me and says, ‘I can’t stop drinking, can you help me?’ I can say ‘yes’ and follow up and do it,” said the Emmy and Golden Globe nominee, who founded a men’s sober living facility, Perry House, in his old Malibu beach home, which operated from 2013 to 2015.
Selma Blair shared a beautiful tribute to Matthew, “My oldest boy friend… I loved him unconditionally. And he me. And I’m broken. Broken hearted. Sweet dreams Matty. Sweet dreams.”
(Credit: Instagram)“When I die, I know people will talk about Friends, Friends, Friends. And I’m glad of that, happy I’ve done some solid work as an actor.”
“But when I die, as far as my so-called accomplishments go, it would be nice if Friends were listed far behind the things I did to try to help other people. I know it won’t happen, but it would be nice.”
