Friends actor Matthew Perry was working to launch a foundation to help those struggling with substance abuse before his untimely death.
ET has learned that Perry was working on expanding his work with people struggling with addiction through the creation of a foundation just before his death, which occurred on Oct. 28 at his home in Los Angeles, California.
Perry died from an apparent drowning and reports indicate the late actor was found in his hot tub. He was 54 years old.
It’s unclear how far into the process of creating the foundation the 17 Again actor was when he died, but it would appear Perry was focused on helping others battling the same addiction issues he faced throughout his life.
In an interview with the New York Times in November 2022, Perry said he “probably spent $9 million or something” over the course of several decades in an effort to get sober and went to rehab some 15 times.
Throughout the years that he battled addiction, Perry endured pneumonia, an exploded colon, two weeks in a coma, nine months with a colostomy bag and more than a dozen stomach surgeries, he told the Times.
The late actor was celebrating 18 months sober when he talked with the outlet about his then-upcoming memoir and noted that by the time he was 49 years old, he realized he had spent half of his life weaving in and out of treatment and sober living facilities.
His devotion to helping others with the same addiction he faced prompted him to at one point open a sober living home at his former Malibu mansion, dubbed the Perry House. The business closed in 2015 due to the high operating costs, he told the Hollywood Reporter.
Despite the closure, Perry continued working to help others get clean and even said that he hoped this was how the world would remember him after his death.
While appearing on the Q with Tom Power podcast, the actor said he would like to be known not just — or even firstly — for his work on the Emmy-winning NBC show, but for who he was as a person.
“I would like to be remembered as somebody who lived well, loved well, was a seeker,” Perry said in November 2022.
“The best thing about me, bar none, is if somebody comes up to me and says, ‘I can’t stop drinking. Can you help me?’ I can say yes and follow up and do it,” Perry said. “And I’ve said this for a long time: when I die, I don’t want Friends to be the first thing that’s mentioned — I want that to be the first thing that’s mentioned. And I’m going to live the rest of my life proving that.”
The actor is survived by his mother, Suzanne Marie Morrison, and his father, John Bennett Perry.
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