How Matthew Perry Helped Others Find Sobriety: ‘So Caring’
By Movieguide® Contributor
While most people will remember Matthew Perry for his role on FRIENDS, his best work came from his passion for helping people overcome addiction.
Movieguide® reported, “FRIENDS star Matthew Perry died on Saturday, October 28, 2023. He was 54.”
Throughout his life, Perry struggled with drugs and alcohol, a battle that he was very open about. Even while he struggled to stay sober, he began to help other addicts.
In 2013, Perry turned his Malibu house into a men’s sober living facility, which he operated for two years before closing it to find a more sustainable location.
“That was a Malibu beach house, and it was too expensive to run, and the business didn’t really work,” Perry told the Hollywood Reporter in 2015. “So we’re looking at smaller places in Santa Monica and Studio City. I’m keeping the business going because I like it; it’s a good way to help alcoholics.”
“I’ve had a lot of ups and downs in my life and a lot of wonderful accolades,” he continued, “but the best things about me is that if an alcoholic comes up to me and says, ‘Will you help me stop drinking?’ I will say, ‘Yes. I know how to do that.’”
Perry previously helped his good friend and fellow actor Hank Azaria overcome his battle with alcohol.
“Matthew and I became really good friends, and we were really more like brothers for a long time,” Azaria said in a tribute post. “We laughed a lot together. We were there for each other in the early days of our career.”
“I’m a sober guy for 17 years, and I want to say that, the night I went into AA, Matthew brought me in,” he continued. “The whole first year I was sober, we went to meetings together. When Matthew was sober, he was so caring and giving and wise. And he totally helped me get sober.”
Perry struggled to maintain his sobriety, slipping in and out of his battle with addiction dozens of times throughout his life.
“It’s heartbreaking for those of us who loved him and knew him really well, personally,” Azaria said. “We just missed him. We just missed him. It’s one of the terrible things about this disease is it just takes away the person you love.”
Perry died on October 28 from an apparent drowning in a hot tub at his house. There were no drugs found at the scene of the accident.
Movieguide® previously reported:
FRIENDS star Matthew Perry died on Saturday, October 28, 2023. He was 54.
In the past, the actor opened up about how God helped him overcome his struggle with addiction.
Movieguide® reported, “[Perry] said that he started drinking heavily by the time he was 18, and at one point he was taking up to 55 Vicodin a day. He managed to hide his addiction for years until it got to the point he couldn’t anymore.”
He nearly died from an opioid overdose at the age of 49. “The doctors told my family that I had a 2 percent chance to live,” he shared, per Movieguide®. “I was put on a thing called an ECMO machine, which does all the breathing for your heart and your lungs. And that’s called a Hail Mary. No one survives that.”
The actor finally found sobriety after asking God for help.
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