“It still seems impossible”: ‘Friends’ creators pay tribute to Matthew Perry

Family, friends and fellow celebrities mourned the loss of Matthew Perry, the wise-cracking co-star of the 1990s hit television sitcom “Friends,” after the actor was found dead in a hot tub at his Los Angeles home.

“Matthew brought so much joy to the world, both as an actor and a friend,” Perry’s family said in a statement. “We are heartbroken by the tragic loss of our beloved son and brother.”

The statement thanked Perry’s fans for their “tremendous outpouring of love.”

“It still seems impossible,” the show’s principle creative team, Marta Kauffman, David Crane and Kevin Bright, said in a joint statement on Sunday. “All we can say is that we feel blessed to have had him as part of our lives.”

Word of Perry’s death emerged late on Saturday in a flurry of news media reports, followed by statements from NBC, the broadcast network that aired “Friends” for 10 years, and Warner Bros. Television Group, which produced the show.

Perry’s death came one year after publication of his memoir, “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing,” which chronicled decades-long bouts with addiction to prescription painkillers and alcohol, a struggle he said came close to ending his life more than once.

In his introduction to the book, the US-Canadian actor wrote, “Hi, my name is Matthew, although you may know me by another name. My friends call me Matty. And I should be dead.” At the time, Perry said he had been sober for about 18 months.

Perry gained fame and remains best known for his role as the sardonically wry statistical analyst Chandler Bing on “Friends,” which ranked among the top-10 prime-time television shows for much of its original network run from 1994 to 2004.

The series, still popular in syndication, made global stars out of Perry and all five of his lead castmates – Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc and Lisa Kudrow.

The six earned wide critical acclaim for their on-screen chemistry, playing a close-knit group of young singles who shared space in each other’s apartments and hung out together at the “Central Perk,” a fictional Manhattan coffee house.

Although Chandler and Cox’s character, Monica, were wed in the show’s seventh season, Perry never married in real life.  The official “Friends” webpage on Instagram said: “We are devastated to learn of Matthew Perry’s passing. He was a true gift to us all. Our heart goes out to his family, loved ones, and all of his fans.”

Many celebrities shared their thoughts on social media over the weekend, such as actor Alyssa Milano, who co-starred with Perry in the 1988 prom night film “Dance ‘Til Dawn,” described him as “always the funniest person in the room.”

“Matty, remember when we used to go play bingo at that church in the valley?” she wrote. “You made me laugh that painful kind of laugh. A cry laugh. You made me cry-laugh.”

A tribute even came from Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, a boyhood friend of the young Perry, who grew up in Ottawa after his mother, a Canadian journalist divorced Perry’s father, remarried and moved with the boy to Ontario. The mother served for a time as press secretary to Trudeau’s father, Pierre, while he headed the Canadian government decades ago.