The tight-knit cast of Friends has taken to social media to pay a heartfelt tribute to their late co-star, Matthew Perry, capturing the essence of their enduring bond and honouring the memory of the beloved actor who brought Chandler Bing to life.
Perry passed away on Saturday, October 28, 2023, at the age of 54 after being found unresponsive at his home.
As the world grapples with the loss of the comedy icon, co-stars Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, and David Schwimmer each shared poignant posts on their respective social media accounts, creating a digital memorial that resonated with fans around the world.
Cox, famed for portraying Monica Geller, posted some behind-the-scenes clips featuring herself and her cherished co-star. In the heartfelt post, she expressed how she misses Perry every day.
“I am so grateful for every moment I had with you Matty and I miss you every day,” she wrote.
“When you work with someone as closely as I did with Matthew, there are thousands of moments I wish I could share. For now here’s one of my favorites.
“To give a little backstory, Chandler and Monica were supposed to have a one night fling in London. But because of the audience’s reaction, it became the beginning of their love story.
“In this scene, before we started rolling, he whispered a funny line for me to say. He often did things like that. He was funny and he was kind.”
Kudrow, who portrayed the quirky Phoebe Buffay, expressed her appreciation to Perry for his limitless humour as she fondly reminisced about their friendship.
“Thank you for making me laugh so hard at something you said, that my muscles ached, and tears poured down my face EVERY DAY,” she wrote.
“Thank you for your open heart in a six way relationship that required compromise. And a lot of “talking.
“Thank you for showing up at work when you weren’t well and then, being completely brilliant.
“Thank you for the best 10 years a person gets to have.
“Thank you for trusting me.
“Thank you for all I learned about GRACE and LOVE through knowing you.
“Thank you for the time I got to have with you, Matthew.”
LeBlanc’s character, Joey Tribbiani, shared a close friendship with Perry’s character on the show. Beyond the scripted lines, their camaraderie was profound, with LeBlanc revealing that his time on set with Perry was his “favorite” experience.
“Matthew. It is with a heavy heart I say goodbye. The times we had together are honestly among the favorite times of my life,” he began.
“It was an honor to share the stage with you and to call you my friend. I will always smile when I think of you and I’ll never forget you. Never.
“Spread your wings and fly brother you’re finally free. Much love. And I guess you’re keeping the 20 bucks you owe me.”
Schwimmer, the actor behind Ross Geller, expressed gratitude to Perry “for ten incredible years of laughter and creativity”.
“I will never forget your impeccable comic timing and delivery. You could take a straight line of dialogue and bend it to your will, resulting in something so entirely original and unexpectedly funny it still astonishes,” he wrote.
“And you had heart. Which you were generous with, and shared with us, so we could create a family out of six strangers.
“This photo is from one of my favorite moments with you. Now it makes me smile and grieve at the same time.
“I imagine you up there, somewhere, in the same white suit, hands in your pockets, looking around—
“Could there BE any more clouds?”
Aniston, renowned for her portrayal of Rachel Green on the iconic sitcom, commenced her tribute by sharing that Perry’s loss “cut deep,” accompanied by a collection of photos capturing their time together on the hit show.
“Oh boy this one has cut deep… Having to say goodbye to our Matty has been an insane wave of emotions that I’ve never experienced before. We all experience loss at some point in our lives. Loss of life or loss of love,” she shared.
“Being able to really SIT in this grief allows you to feel the moments of joy and gratitude for having loved someone that deep. And we loved him deeply. He was such a part of our DNA. We were always the 6 of us. This was a chosen family that forever changed the course of who we were and what our path was going to be. For Matty, he KNEW he loved to make people laugh. As he said himself, if he didn’t hear the ‘laugh’ he thought he was going to die.
“His life literally depended on it. And boy did he succeed in doing just that. He made all of us laugh. And laugh hard. In the last couple weeks, I’ve been poring over our texts to one another. Laughing and crying then laughing again. I’ll keep them forever and ever. I found one text that he sent me out of nowhere one day. It says it all. (See the second slide…)
“Matty, I love you so much and I know you are now completely at peace and out of any pain. I talk to you every day… sometimes I can almost hear you saying “could you BE any crazier?”
“Rest little brother. You always made my day…”
Perry was recently farewelled at a private funeral service in Los Angeles attended by close friends and family.
All five of his Friends co-stars attended the intimate ceremony, alongside Perry’s family