'Friends' Guest Stars Pay Tribute to Matthew Perry

The Friends family is paying their respects to the beloved Chandler Bing.

Days after the shocking news of Matthew Perry’s death at age 54 by an apparent drowning at his L.A. home on Saturday, his costars from the hit ‘90s sitcom have been weighing in on the loss. 

Aisha Tyler, who portrayed David Schwimmer’s character Ross’ girlfriend, Charlie Wheeler, for nine episodes of the show — becoming the first Black person with a recurring role on the sitcom — wrote on Instagram that Perry “had a gentleness and generosity of spirit that was unparalleled.” 

“I learned how to tell a joke perfectly just by watching him work. And I will never forget the moment he leaned in, on my first night of taping Friends, to tell me warmly, ‘get ready for your life to change,’ ” she continued. “Rest well, Matthew Perry. Thank you for the kindness and laughter.” 

Elliott Gould, who played Monica and Ross’ father on the sitcom and became Chandler’s father-in-law after he wed Monica in season seven, also paid tribute to Perry, who he described as “kind, thoughtful, smart, funny and just a terrifically, talented actor.”

Gould, 85, continued in his post, “Matthew told me he was so honored to be working with me. What he didn’t know until I told him, was that it was my privilege to play his father-in-law. My heart goes out to his wonderful family. He will be missed by so many but he will never be forgotten.”

Christina Ricci, who guest starred as one of Joey Tribbiani’s (Matt LeBlanc) seven sisters in the spinoff series Joey, praised Perry as a “genius” on Instagram as she shared, “Friends saved me numerous times during hard and lonely times in my life. I adored his character and wanted to marry Chandler Bing as a teenager. I watched all his movies.”

Despite never having met Perry, Ricci, 43, said that she “burst into tears” when she read the news of his death and encouraged people to read his book, which she called “another gift he gave us.”

“I downloaded his book and read the whole thing on my cross country flight today. I’m heartbroken this man suffered so much in life while giving us so much of himself,” she wrote. “May he finally rest in peace ♥️.”

Maggie Wheeler, who played Chandler’s on-again-off-again girlfriend Janice Hosenstein before he married Monica (Courteney Cox), also weighed in following the actor’s death. 

“What a loss. The world will miss you Matthew Perry,” she wrote on Instagram alongside a photo of them on the sitcom together. “The joy you brought to so many in your too short lifetime will live on. I feel so very blessed by every creative moment we shared.”

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Kathleen Turner, who played Helena Handbasket, one of Chandler’s parents on Friends, opened up to PEOPLE about the loss of her TV son in light of his death as she shared she is “very sad for Matthew.”

“He came to see one of my Broadway shows and he came backstage,” Turner, 69, said. “When he saw me, he yelled out, ‘Hey dad’ and everyone thought it was pretty cool. I think it was for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.”

Turner played Helena Handbasket, a transgender woman referred to by Chandler as his “father” in the show, and praised Perry for his “good sense of humor” and “good heart.”

“He liked other people, which, to me, is terribly important, especially for an actor."

The series’ co-creators Marta Kauffman and David Crane along with executive producer Kevin Bright issued a joint statement Sunday expressing their love for the late actor, who they said “was always the funniest in the room.”

“We are shocked and deeply, deeply saddened by our beloved friend Matthew’s passing,” they wrote. “It still seems impossible. All we can say is that we feel blessed to have had him as part of our lives. He was a brilliant talent.”

Reflecting on Perry’s breakout role as the sarcastic Chandler Bing, they continued: “It’s a cliché to say that an actor makes a role their own, but in Matthew’s case, there are no truer words. From the day we first heard him embody the role of Chandler Bing, there was no one else for us.” 

One of Perry’s longtime friends, Hank Azaria — who scored a role on Friends as one of Phoebe Buffay’s (Lisa Kudrow) boyfriends, David — also paid tribute to the late actor in a video posted on Instagram Sunday.

“Matthew was the first friend I made in Los Angeles, when I moved there. I was 21, he was 16,” Azaria, 59, said as he started the lengthy tribute to his friend, who he praised as “the funniest man ever.”

“Matthew and I became really good friends and we were really more like brothers for a long time. We drank a lot together, we laughed a lot together, we were there for each other in the early days of our career,” he continued. “I really loved him.”

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