Matthew Perry — who played the charmingly lovable and endlessly quotable Chandler Bing on the sitcom Friends, has died, law enforcement sources confirmed to Rolling Stone. He was 54. A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department said that police “responded at 4:10 this afternoon to a death investigation for a male in his 50s.”
While Perry was best known for his role in Friends, he appeared in scores of other television shows — including Studio 60 and the Sunset Strip, The Good Wife, and the revived The Odd Couple — and comedic films, including Fools Rush In, The Whole Nine Yards, Three to Tango, The Kid, and many more movies.
But it was Chandler, who he portrayed over 10 seasons and over the course of more than 200 episodes, which endeared him to fans. (Lines like, “Could I BE more [add quip here]” with a drawn-out “be” inspired video montages and endless quotes.) Alongside the ensemble cast — comprising Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer, Courteney Cox, and Matt LeBlanc — he embodied his character, augmenting his hilarious lines with facial expressions that almost bordered breaking character, something comedians try to avoid, but also added to his charm.
The Beatles announce release date for final song “Now & Then”
That was in some ways by design, as he told Dateline in 2004: “(The Friends creators) took all of us out to lunch separately and said ‘tell us about yourself.’ And I remember saying two things: ‘I’m not an unattractive man, but I’m just awful with women… that’s a character you haven’t seen before. And I also am not comfortable with any silence at all. I have to break any awkward moment or silence with a joke.’ And what better character for a sitcom is that? It’s a built-in excuse for him to be funny.”
Continue here: Rolling Stone
