Friends co-stars, family attend Matthew Perry’s funeral
Matthew Perry’s family and friends wept as an emotional song with powerful lyrics was played at the tragic star’s funeral service.
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The cast of Friends have joined Matthew Perry’s family and loved ones, who gathered to farewell the star at a private funeral in Los Angeles.
Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, Courteney Cox and David Schwimmer were seen arriving together at the service dressed in black.
Matt LeBlanc was also at the two-hour service, which took place at Forest Lawn Church of the Hills cemetery, which is near the Warner Bros studio where Friends was filmed for 10 years.
Other famous stars who have been laid to rest there include INXS star Michael Hutchence, Anne Heche, Paul Walker, Carrie Fisher, Debbie Reynolds and Bette Davis.
Perry’s mother Suzanne Morrison and his Dateline journalist stepfather Keith were both at the private event, along with his father John Perry.
Keith Morrison was one of the pallbearers, and Perry was buried in a wooden coffin in a ceremony only attended by his family.
According to the Mail Online, mourners wept and broke down when the service ended with a rendition of Peter Gabriel’s song Don’t Give Up.
The 1986 song includes the lyric: “No fight left or so it seems, I am a man whose dreams have all deserted, I’ve changed my face, I’ve changed my name, but no one wants you when you lose.”
The duet with Kate Bush continues: “Don’t give up, Cause you have friends... rest your head, you worry too much. It’s going to be alright. When times get rough, you can fall back on us. Don’t give up, please don’t give up.”
The funeral comes as a website for The Matthew Perry Foundation went live online after Perry, who battled alcohol and drug addiction, planned to establish it to support those suffering from substance abuse. Perry’s loved ones will carry on his work as part of his lasting legacy.
According to the organisation’s mission statement, “The Matthew Perry Foundation is the realization of Matthew’s enduring commitment to helping others struggling with the disease of addiction. It will honor his legacy and be guided by his own words and experiences and driven by his passion for making a difference in as many lives as possible.”
“When I die, I don’t want Friends to be the first thing that’s mentioned — I want helping others to be the first thing that’s mentioned,” Perry said in 2022, while promoting his memoir, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing.
“I’m going to live the rest of my life proving that. Addiction is far too powerful for anyone to defeat alone. But together, one day at a time, we can beat it down.”
Perry, 54, who played Chandler Bing, died nearly a week ago in an apparent drowning in his jacuzzi at his LA home.
He was found unresponsive with paramedics later declaring him dead at the scene after a “rapid medical assessment.”
His cause of death has been deferred after pending a toxicology report, after an initial autopsy was inconclusive, prompting further tests.
“We are all so utterly devastated by the loss of Matthew,” Perry’s Friends costars said joint statement. “We were more than just cast mates. We are a family.”
“There is so much to say, but right now we’re going to take a moment to grieve and process this unfathomable loss.”
Aniston, Cox, Kudrow, LeBlanc and Schwimmer said they “will say more, as and when we are able.”
“For now,” they shared, “our thoughts and our love are with Matty’s family, his friends, and everyone who loved him around the world.”
Jim Burrows, who directed more than a dozen Friends episodes, said he texted Aniston, Cox, and Kudrow after hearing the tragic news.
“I had texted the girls the day we found out,” he told US Today.
“They were destroyed. It’s a brother dying.”
Friends co-creators Marta Kauffman and David Crane, and director Kevin Bright, said: “We are shocked and deeply, deeply saddened by our beloved friend Matthew’s passing,” they said. “It still seems impossible. All we can say is that we feel blessed to have had him as part of our lives.”
ANISTON’S FEARS FOR PERRY IN RESURFACED INTERVIEW
Aniston cried while talking about the thought of losing her Friends co-star Matthew Perry, a new resurfaced interview has revealed.
Nearly 20 years before Perry’s unexpected death last weekend, Aniston sat down with US journalist Diane Sawyer to share something that each of her Friends co-stars “don’t know about themselves”.
When asked what Perry doesn’t know in the 2004 interview, Aniston responded simply: “That he’s all right.
“He’s struggled,” she said, referring to the actor’s battle with addiction.
Wiping tears from her eyes, Aniston added: “We didn’t know, we weren’t equipped to deal with it. Nobody had ever dealt with that, and at the idea of even losing him … he’s having a road, but he’s all right.”
Over the years, Perry spoke about his “crush” on Aniston, saying he knew he wasn’t “in with a shot” after the actress “married Brad Pitt”.
He also said that over the years Aniston was the main cast member of Friends who regularly checked in on him.
Perry open about his 30 year struggle with addiction, which resulted in him visiting rehab 15 times over his lifetime, and having a number of near-death experiences.
He said his addiction issues grew under the “white-hot flame of fame” after he shot to international stardom, aged 24.
Perry wrote that fans of Friends will be able to tell whether he was drinking alcohol or taking drugs “from season to season” by “gauging” his weight and tracking his facial hair throughout the show.
“When I’m carrying weight, it’s alcohol; when I’m skinny, it’s pills; when I have a goatee, it’s a lot of pills,” he said.
He described himself as “pretty healthy” by June 2022 and said he was motivated to help others struggling with addiction.
Originally published as Friends co-stars, family attend Matthew Perry’s funeral
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