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Matthew Perry was “found unconscious in a detached Jacuzzi” when first responders arrived at his home on Saturday, October 28.
“A bystander raised the man’s head above the water and brought him to the edge, and firefighters pulled him from the water upon arrival,” a Los Angeles Fire Department spokesperson told CNN in a statement on Monday, October 30. “A quick medical assessment unfortunately revealed that the man was deceased prior to the arrival of the first responder.”
A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Fire Department said this earlier on Monday Nicholas Prange told Page six that firefighters “did not perform CPR” on Perry after arriving at his Pacific Palisades residence “because he was already beyond medical attention.”
Authorities reportedly discovered Perry after responding to a call of someone going into cardiac arrest on Saturday. There were reportedly no signs of foul play at the scene, but according to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner, his cause of death was “deferred” after his initial autopsy because the results were determined to be inconclusive pending a toxicology report. Further investigation into Perry’s cause of death has been requested. He was 54.
Perry was best known for his portrayal of Chandler Bing Friendswhich ran for ten seasons from 1994 to 2004. Earlier on Monday, the actor’s former costars mourned the loss of their longtime friend.
“We are all so utterly devastated by the loss of Matthew. We were more than just castmates. We are a family,” Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc And David Schwimmer told We weekly in a joint statement on Monday, October 30. “There is so much to say, but right now we are going to take a moment to grieve and process this unfathomable loss.”
“We will say more in due course, if and when we are able to do so,” the statement continued. “For now, our thoughts and our love are with Matty’s family, his friends and everyone who loved him around the world.”
While filming the NBC sitcom, Perry developed an addiction to Vicodin after a jet ski accident in 1997. That eventually led to alcohol abuse, which affected his performance on set. In 2000, he was hospitalized with pancreatitis. Perry made several attempts to sober up during his stay Friendsand eventually went on to recover ahead of their 2021 Max reunion, where Perry opened up about being hard on himself while filming scenes as his character, Chandler.
‘I felt like I would die if they didn’t laugh. It’s definitely not healthy, but sometimes I would say a sentence and they wouldn’t laugh, and I would sweat and convulse,” he told his former co-stars. “If I didn’t get the laughs I should have, I would panic. That’s how I felt every night.”
While Perry knew he would ultimately be remembered for his time on Friends, he previously opened up about how he also wanted his legacy to focus on the “help” he provided others.
‘The best thing about me, bar none, is that if someone comes to me and says, ‘I can’t stop drinking, can you help me?’ I can say yes and follow through and do it,” Perry said on the “Q With Tom Power” podcast in 2022. “When I die, I don’t want friends to be the first thing mentioned. I want this to be the first thing mentioned. And I will spend the rest of my life proving that.”
In 2013, Perry converted his Malibu home into a sober living facility for men called Perry House, which offered holistic services to help men get sober.