Matthew Perry memorial outside NYC Friends apartment grows as fans leave flowers and heartfelt tributes to late star following his shock death aged 54
A memorial to late Friends actor Matthew Perry outside the building used in the iconic sitcom has continued to grow since the shock death of the actor Turned 54 on Saturday.
The Friends star was found unconscious in a hot tub at his Pacific Palisades home on Saturday. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office revealed that his cause of death has been “deferred” while the investigation is considered “ongoing” by authorities.
Dozens of mourners placed flowers, heartfelt notes and quotes from Perry’s legendary character Chandler Bing outside the “Friends” building in New York City’s West Village.
Fan messages included: “Thanks for always making us laugh” and “Friends is my comfort show, thanks for the laughs, you will be missed man!
“You are so loved and will be missed for generations. Thank you for being our friend.”
NYC memorial: A memorial to late Friends actor Matthew Perry outside the building used in the iconic sitcom has continued to grow since the actor’s shocking death at age 54 on Saturday
Tragic loss: The Friends star was found unconscious in a hot tub at his Pacific Palisades home. Seen in November 2022
“Friends were the answer and solution to my anxiety, before I even had a word for that feeling.”
Perry had prescription medications, including antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs, in his home at the time of his death, but no illegal drugs, a police source claims.
The law enforcement mole told TMZ that the Friends star was also in possession of a prescription COPD medication.
COPD stands for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, with the medications found in Perry’s home usually being used for people with emphysema or chronic bronchitis.
Perry was a smoker and also struggled with an addiction to alcohol and opiates, but claimed to have been clean shortly before his suspected drowning.
Perry wanted to be remembered for helping fellow addicts.
The actor shared his wish in an interview in November 2022, which resurfaced after his shock death.
In the chat on the ‘Q With Tom Power’ podcast, which is shared online by fans, Matthew – whose drug addiction almost killed him – talked about how he didn’t want his role as Chandler Bing in Friends to become his legacy: ‘ The best thing about me – bar none – is when someone comes to me and says, ‘I can’t stop drinking, can you help me?’ I can say ‘Yes’, follow up and do it. That is the best.
Perry rose to fame for his role as ‘Chandler Bing’ on the hit ’90s sitcom, which ran for ten seasons
Much Missed: Dozens of mourners placed flowers, heartfelt notes and quotes from Perry’s legendary character Chandler Bing outside the ‘Friends’ building in New York City’s West Village
Floral tributes: Fans across the city paid tribute to the late actor
Thank you: Fans also wrote down some of Chandler Bing’s most iconic quotes
One fan wrote; “Friends were the answer and solution to my anxiety before I even had a word for that feeling.”
RIP: Fans gathered outside the building to pay their respects to the late actor
Heartbreak: Fans also wrote messages thanking Perry ‘for the laughs’
“And I’ve been saying this for a long time: When I die, I don’t want ‘Friends’ to be the first thing mentioned.
“I want this to be the first thing that comes up, and I’m going to have to spend the rest of my life proving that.”
Matthew admitted that despite his wishes, he knew his ability to help addicts would fall “far behind” on his list of achievements when it came to being remembered by fans.
He added, “I know it won’t happen, but it would be nice.”
In 2013, Matthew turned his Malibu mansion into a sober living facility for men and named it “Perry’s House.”
Matthew also revealed that he wrote a theater production about his addiction battles.
He added: ‘I also wrote my play ‘The End of Longing’, a personal message to the world, an exaggerated form of me as a drunkard.
“I had something important to say to people like me, and to people who love people like me.”
Matthew’s memoir “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing: A Candid, Darkly Funny Book” laid bare his struggles with addiction — which became so severe that he suffered a gastrointestinal perforation in 2018 at the age of 49 as a result of his extreme opiate use .
He was given just a two percent chance of living after being in a coma for two weeks and the actor had to use a colostomy bag while his colon healed.
Matthew revealed that while his body was dependent on the bag, he woke up covered in his own feces ’50 to 60′ times during the five months he was in hospital.
He said: ‘I had sex all over my body, all over my body, in the next bed.
‘If it breaks, it breaks. You need to get nurses.”
Icon: The star is pictured with Friends co-stars Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer during the Friends reunion that aired in 2021
He said that at the height of his addiction, he was taking about 55 Vicodin pills a day and weighed only 128 pounds.
Matthew also joked that viewers could now tell what drugs he was taking by observing his varying appearances on Friends.
He said in his book: ‘You can follow the trajectory of my addiction if you measure my weight from season to season.
“If I’m carrying weight, it’s alcohol; if I’m skinny, it’s pills; if I have a goatee, it’s a lot of pills.’