‘Friends’ star Matthew Perry dead aged 54

[Seshmeister]

The actor beloved for his portrayal of Chandler Bing on Friends was found dead in a hot tub at his Los Angeles-area home on Saturday, the LA Times and TMZ reported, citing law enforcement sources.

Police were called to the home at around 4pm and found Perry unresponsive, the sources said.

There were no initial signs of foul play. The investigation is ongoing.

Perry was born in 1969 to father John Bennett Perry, an actor, and mother Suzanne Marie Langford in Plymouth, Massachusetts. He spent his childhood between Montreal, Canada, and Los Angeles.

He began acting at a young age before shooting to stardom on the Nineties sitcom smash-hit Friends, where he portrayed the boundlessly hilarious and quick-witted Bing in 234 episodes across 10 seasons from 1994 to 2004. He was nominated for an Emmy in the role in 2002.

More at https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-e...box=1698541557

[Seshmeister]

Edited this post because I think I was being too harsh after reading more about him..

[Terry]

Could he BE more dead right now?

[Terry]

Friends...was never quite as over the moon about the show as seemingly the rest of America was when it originally aired. Was aware of it but didn't even watch it until several seasons into the show and only then because I was living with someone who liked it. It was amusing in a light, cute, meaningless way and little more than that far as I was concerned.

Anyway, maybe ten years or so ago I visited with an old actual real-life friend. She and I go way back to elementary school and had hung out until we were in our early 20s. When visiting, she told me that she had reconnected with a mutual elementary school friend of ours whom neither of us had seen since we were twelve or thirteen years old. This mutual friend of ours had moved away, etc. Said friend had apparently ended up as a personal assistant to Perry for a year or so in the early 2000s, just as Friends was ending. As the story goes, in real life Perry wasn't particularly spontaneously witty a la Chandler Bing though he was a bit of a low-key douche at times. Dunno if that was just how Perry treated personal assistants or 'the help' in general, and if so he certainly wouldn't be the first (or last) entertainment personality to do so.

From what I gather, the dude had on-again/off-again problems with booze, pills and coke for nearly three decades - none of which was mentioned by the mutual friend - so whatever the particulars of his death were can't say his passing is of any particular surprise. He has looked unhealthy for several years.

Yeah, he did make people laugh on that show. Far as the way of the world, on balance that's a positive thing, I'd agree. Am not gonna say he was 'beloved' by me, but I suppose considering the enduring quality of the fandom for the show he was certainly beloved by many.

One down, five to go.

[Nitro Express]

The only time I watched Friend’s is when I was in the hospital for three days and was bored as hell.

[Nitro Express]

Probably heart related. A lot of people don’t know they have high blood pressure because they don’t see a doctor regularly or they are undisciplined and don’t do anything to get it down if they do know. The results is a fatal heart attack.

[FORD]

Apparently he played pickleball for 2 hours before getting in the hot tub. That's probably a lot of strain on the heart for somebody who was already known to have damaged several internal organs due to his years of opiate addiction. Ironic if he died from doing something presumably healthy.

[Nitro Express]

It’s healthy if the doctor says you can do it and you work up to it. There’s a reason you have to have a doctor’s check up to do certain activities.

Many people drop dead shoveling snow. They have a poor cardiovascular system and are out of shape and they suddenly do a strenuous activity their body can’t handle and it kills them.

[Nitro Express]

If you are out of shape the best thing to do is go for a walk. Put some comfy shoes on and head out the door. Work up to walking a mile a day. Keep doing it. Be consistent and then you can walk longer or do the mile quicker. You can expand your exercise to other things once your body can handle it.

[Kristy]

Anyhoo he made lots of people laugh in that show and so on the scales of life he was a positive.

Yeah, un-huh, Friends was funny. Six of the most dysfunctional sexually eunuch characters in the history of television whining about how entitled they are. Don't know much about Perry himself nor do I care but he did play the smug white male archetype asshole all too well.

[Kristy]

Apparently he played pickleball for 2 hours before getting in the hot tub.

Well, that explains it. Pickleball - the sport that rich white people play before they die.

[Jérôme Frenchise]

Pickleball looks a lot like padel, though much slower and without glass walls around.
For old folks for sure, rich, white or not.

[Nitro Express]

I thought playing pickle ball was playing with balls while sucking a pickle.

[Nickdfresh]

It’s healthy if the doctor says you can do it and you work up to it. There’s a reason you have to have a doctor’s check up to do certain activities.

Many people drop dead shoveling snow. They have a poor cardiovascular system and are out of shape and they suddenly do a strenuous activity their body can’t handle and it kills them.

Shoveling snow is one of the worst "cardio" things and can be much more strenuous for some than even running or biking because there isn't much of a warm up, blood has to flow to all limbs and the cold adds to the stresses...

[Nickdfresh]

I wasn't a big fan of Friends and recall Artie Lang when he was with Howard Stern making a comment when someone said "Friends" 'sharked' and stopped being funny. He said, "you mean the Pilot?" I did watch it somewhat because apparently the girls at the bar all loved it and it was conversation. Other than that I always thought it was trendy milk toast from the land of cliche. The Ross and Rachel drama made me wanna vomit the fuck all over...