Close friends of late star Matthew Perry have announced the creation of a foundation in his name dedicated to supporting people struggling with addiction.
The actor, who rose to fame as Chandler Bing in “Friends,” was found dead in his Los Angeles home on Saturday after apparently drowning.
Perry, who died aged 54, spoke openly about his struggles with drug and alcohol addiction for years and estimated that the total cost of his rehabilitation was $9 million.
Announcing the launch, a statement from the organization said: “The Matthew Perry Foundation is the realization of Matthew’s ongoing commitment to helping others struggling with the disease of addiction.
“It will honor his legacy and be guided by his own words and experiences and driven by his passion to make a difference in as many lives as possible,” reads the statement announcing the foundation.
The actor, who rose to fame as Chandler Bing in “Friends,” was found dead in his home in Los Angeles on Saturday.
The new foundation posted a quote from Perry on its website saying he hopes to be remembered for helping people struggling with addiction
The organization also posted a citation from Perry on its website, hoping he will be remembered for helping others struggling with addiction.
The quote is: “When I die, I don’t want ‘friends’ to be the first thing mentioned – I want ‘helping others’ to be the first thing mentioned.”
“And I will spend the rest of my life proving it. Addiction is far too powerful for anyone to overcome alone. But together we can do it one day at a time.”
The investigation into Perry’s death is ongoing, but officials said there is no evidence of foul play.
He is believed to have drowned, although no official cause of death has been released.
First responders at the scene revealed that when Perry was found by his assistant, he was found underwater before they lifted his head in a desperate attempt to give him some air.
When the Los Angeles Fire Department arrived at his home in the Pacific Palisades, the actor was later found dead.
Earlier this week, a 15-second call surfaced that revealed the moment his assistant called 911 to report a possible cardiac arrest.
Perry was photographed last week, the last time he was seen in public before he was found dead in his LA home
Perry has spoken openly about his past struggles with alcohol and drug abuse, but has said in recent interviews that he was sober and sober.
In his memoirs, he wrote that he spent $9 million to get sober, attended 6,000 AA meetings, went through rehab 15 times and detoxed 65 times.
He said he overcame his addiction in 2021 and lives a healthier lifestyle.
Perry took up pickleball — a game similar to tennis and table tennis — and usually played it twice a day, friends said.
When he was first cast on “Friends” at age 24, his alcohol addiction began to surface.
Speaking about his drug abuse and the toll it took on his body, he admitted to taking up to 55 Vicodin tablets a day, which helped reduce his weight to just 128 pounds.
By the end of the hit series’ tenth season, he was “in deep trouble”, as Perry revealed years later.
He told an interviewer in 2016 that he did not remember filming three seasons of Friends.
“I had this weird rule that I would never drink on set,” Perry said. “But in extreme cases, I went to work with a hangover.” “It’s so horrible to feel like that and have to work and have fun at the same time.”
People gather at a memorial with flowers and notes in memory of late actor Matthew Perry in front of the building used as an exterior in the New York sitcom “Friends.”
Matthew Perry’s father, John Bennett Perry, 82, arrived at his son’s home in LA just hours after the Friends star’s death, looking shaken.
He even revealed that he would go to the open houses – not because he was interested in buying real estate, but to see if he could steal medicine from medicine cabinets.
“I didn’t know how to stop,” Perry admitted in an interview with People last year, before offering an analogy that explained the power drugs and alcohol had over him at the height of his television career.
“If the police came to my house and said: ‘If you drink tonight, we’ll take you to jail’, I would start packing.
“I couldn’t stop because the disease and addiction is progressive. So it gets worse as you get older,” he explained.
Perry stars as Chandler Bing, alongside Courteney Cox as Monica Geller, Jennifer Aniston as Rachel Green, David Schwimmer as Ross Geller, Matt LeBlanc as Joey Tribbiani and Lisa Kudrow as Phoebe Buffay in the hit sitcom
Last year, Perry released a memoir called “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing,” in which he spoke candidly about his battle with addiction.
Along the way, he faced a number of serious health issues, including a five-month hospitalization in 2018 after his colon ruptured due to excessive opioid use.
Perry admitted in his memoirs that he was only given a two percent chance of survival at some point in the hospital, but eventually he would survive.
Perry required fourteen surgeries to repair all abdominal damage caused by the incident, which also left him in a coma.
“I am a very grateful man. I’m grateful to be alive, that’s for sure. And it gives me the ability to do anything,” he said with obvious emotion during a People interview in 2022.
Perry also revealed that part of his inspiration for writing an open and honest memoir was the hope that his stories could serve as a kind of lifeline for others.
Perry never married and ended his engagement to Molly Hurwitz, a talent manager, in 2021.
To support the foundation’s work, visit matthewperryfoundation.org.
Source: Daily Mail
Ashley Root is an author and celebrity journalist who writes for The Fashion Vibes. With a keen eye for all things celebrity, Ashley is always up-to-date on the latest gossip and trends in the world of entertainment.
