The acting world has lost a Friend.
Matthew Perry has died in an apparent drowning, a rep and law enforcement source confirmed to NBC News. He was 54.
The source shared that the incident, which occurred at the Friends star's Los Angeles home "treated as a water rescue" but noted that no foul play is suspected.
An LAPD spokesperson told E! News that officers responded to a "death investigation for a male in his fifties" that afternoon.
Authorities found the Friends alum unresponsive in a hot tub at his Los Angeles home, law enforcement sources told the Los Angeles Times. Six days before his death, Perry shared a photo of himself sitting in a hot tub on Instagram. It was his final post.
The actor was born in Massachusetts in 1969 and raised in Canada. However, at age 15, he moved from Ottawa to Los Angeles to finish high school and pursue an acting career.
After taking on a few small parts on TV for several years, he landed his first major roles on the sitcom Boys Will Be Boys and Growing Pains before his breakout role of Chandler Bing on Friends in 1994.
The NBC sitcom, which he starred alongside Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow and David Schwimmer, ran for 10 seasons with Perry earning his first Emmy nomination in 2002. He went on to receive three more individual nods over the years—two for a guest role on The West Wing and one for his performance in the TNT movie The Ron Clark Story.
Following his run on Friends, Perry starred on TV comedies Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Go On and a remake of The Odd Couple, as well as the movies The Whole Nine Yards and its sequel The Whole Ten Yards.
Throughout his life, the actor battled alcohol and drug addiction. He detailed his struggles in his memoir, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, released November 2022.
Perry recalled undergoing a near-death experience in 2018. He said that while saying in a sober living home, his colon "exploded" from years of opioid overuse and that he ended up spending two weeks in a coma and five months in a hospital. He underwent more than a dozen surgeries.
"There is a reason I'm still here," he said in his book. "And figuring out why is the task that has been put in front of me. And it will be revealed. There is no rush, no desperation. Just the fact that I am here, and I care about people, is the answer. Now when I wake up, I wake up curious, wondering what the world has in store for me, and I for it. And that's enough to go on."
An instant best seller after its release, Perry reflected on how it resonated with fans. "People have just loved it," the actor later told E! News in November 2022 during the GQ Men of the Year event. "I shied away from nothing and I told the truth and the biggest thing was, the goal was, to help people and I know of a lot of people already who have been helped by it."
(E! News and NBC News are part of the NBCUniversal family.)
Keep reading to revisit his extraordinary life in pictures.
1988
The Boys Will Be Boys star poses for a photo while at the Limelight in New York City.
1990
The Sydney actor takes a break while on the set of the CBS series in Los Angeles, California.
1994
The Friends star sits by the well-known fountain that serves as the backdrop for the show's opening sequence.
1996
The Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing author attends the Scream premiere in Los Angeles.
1997
Perry poses while on the set of Friends as his beloved character Chandler Bing.
2000
The 17 Again star attends the Los Angeles premiere of The Grinch.
2004
The actor hits the red carpet for the premiere of The Whole Ten Yards.
2006
The Mr. Sunshine star attends the Entertainment Weekly and Matrix Men upfront party.
2012
The Odd Couple actor hangs out backstage at an event in celebration of the 64th Primetime Emmy Awards.
2016
Perry poses for a photo while at the play The End Of Longing.
2017
The American-Canadian actor was front and center at The Circle premiere in New York City.
2022
Perry attends the 2022 GQ Men of the Year party.
2023
Six months prior to his passing, the Almost Heroes star discussed his memoir while on stage at the 2023 Los Angeles Times Festival.