Matthew Perry of “Friends” Dead at Age 54

This is such terrible news.

Matthew Perry died Saturday in a hot tub at his Los Angeles home. Authorities responded around 4 p.m. to his home, where he was discovered unresponsive.

Perry was known as the beloved character Chandler Bing on the wildly successful 90’s television show “Friends” which chronicled the life of six twenty something year olds living in New York and banding together for support.

Striking a chord with twentysomethings everywhere, Friends was a ratings powerhouse. It drew an average of 25 million viewers for each new episode, finishing among the top 10 primetime programs during each year of its 10-season run.

As the popularity of Friends grew, Perry found himself on an emotional roller coaster ride. Perry had admitted that for he had been battling drug addiction for decades and has experienced a couple of brushes with death due to his excessive alcohol and drug abuse.

As the pressures of celebrity mounted, Perry turned to alcohol to ease the tension. In 1997, he had a jet ski accident. This led to taking painkillers and years of abusing Vicodin, he said. He went into rehab in 2001. He admitted he remembered little about the final three seasons of Friends because of his drinking.

In a 2013, he revealed to People that he didn’t become sober until he was 43. The previous year, he turned his former Malibu beach home into a men’s sober living facility named The Perry House. He began advocating for treatment over incarceration for drug offenders and devoted time and resources to helping other addicts.

He said in a recent interview that when died he didn’t want to be known from “Friends”. Instead he wanted to be known for helping others battle addiction.

Perry also spoke openly about wanting to settle down and have a family but never married and didn’t have children.