Matthew Perry was an American actor and comedian who had a net worth of $120 million at the time of his death. Tragically, Matthew Perry died on October 28, 2023, at the age of 54.
Matthew Perry was best known for playing the role of Chandler Bing on the sitcom “Friends.” He appeared in all 236 of the show’s episodes between 1994 and 2004. He also appeared in a number of additional shows and films, notably TV shows “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip”, “Go On,” and films like “Fools Rush In” and “The Whole Nine Yards.”
Matthew Perry actually had a fairly stable career prior to “Friends.” He gained notice for his theater work during high school, and after relocating to Los Angeles, he appeared in a steady string of guest starring roles on such shows as “Charles in Charge,” “Silver Spoons,” “Just the Ten of Us,” “Highway to Heaven,” “Growing Pains,” “Empty Nest,” “Who’s the Boss?”, “Beverly Hills, 90210” and “Sibs,” to name just a few programs. He also appeared in such films and television movies as “A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon,” “Dance ’til Dawn,” “She’s Out of Control,” “Call Me Anna,” and “Deadly Relations.”
In addition to his supporting and guest-starring work, he also starred in multiple short-lived sitcoms, including “Second Chance,” “Sydney,” and “Home Free.” He was a working actor in Hollywood, which is not something that every actor can say. He was so busy, in fact, that when he heard about the audition for a show called “Six of One,” which was later renamed “Friends,” he was actually unavailable because he was committed to filming a show called “LAX 2194.” However, he did eventually become available and the rest is television history.
“Friends” went on to become one of the most successful television shows of all time, and the six cast members became extremely famous… and extremely wealthy. As we detail later in this article, at the peak of the series, each of the main cast members was earning $1 million per episode. In total, Matthew earned around $90 million just from “Friends” base salary, before royalties from syndication, which have been quite substantial, reportedly as much as $10-20 million per year even to this day.
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Matthew Langford Perry was born on August 19, 1969, in Williamstown, Massachusetts. His mother, Suzanne, is a Canadian-born journalist and the former secretary to Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. His father, John Bennett Perry, is an actor and model. His parents divorced before he turned one. In 1981, when Matthew was 12, his mother Suzanne married journalist Keith Morrison, who would later become famous as a correspondent on “Dateline NBC.”
Matthew got his professional acting break at age 18 being cast in “A Night In The Life Of Jimmy Reardon”, alongside River Phoenix. He also pursued improv comedy at the LA Connection in Sherman Oaks and quickly became a featured performer. He had a few brief guest appearances on television in the late 1980s and then held the intention of enrolling at the University of Southern California. Instead, he was offered the role of Chazz Russell in “Second Chance,” and he became noticed on the acting scene.
He was originally not considered for the audition for “Friends” due to being previously involved in a TV drama called “LAX 2194”. But the project was slow to take off, and Perry was able to make the audition, landing him the role of Chandler Bing for which he is mostly known today. The series lasted for a total of ten seasons and earned Perry an Emmy nomination in 2002.
During his run of “Friends,” he acted in several films such as “Three To Tango,” “Almost Heroes,” “Fools Rush In,” and “The Whole Nine Yards.” He starred in the TNT movie “The Ron Clark Story” in 2006, for which he was nominated for another Emmy, as well as a Golden Globe.
In October 2022, Perry published the memoir, “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing,” and it became a bestseller on Amazon and with The New York Times.
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For the first season of Friends, each cast member earned $22,500 per episode. That works out to $540,000 for the first season. Their salaries were boosted to $40,000 per episode in the second season. That works out to $960,000 for the second season. Ahead of the third season, when their contracts were up, the cast banded together to negotiate as a group. They ended up with a deal that paid $75,000 per episode of season three ($1.875 million for the season), $85,000 for season 4 ($2.04 million), $100,000 for season 5 ($2.5 million) and $125,000 in season 6 ($3.125 million). Ahead of season 7, the cast negotiated for a massive raise. They each ended up earning $750,000 per episode in seasons 7 and 8 ($18 million per season). For seasons 9 and 10, each cast member earned $1 million per episode. That works out to $24 million for season 9 and $18 million for season 10. If you total it all up, each cast member of Friends earned around $90 million in base salary alone from the show before backend bonuses and ongoing royalties.
As part of their 2000 contract negotiations, the cast was able to demand backend points on the show, which would allow them to earn royalties off the show’s sale into syndication. Up to that point, the only other TV stars who had ownership stakes in shows were Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Cosby. Friends continues to generate north of $1 billion per year in syndication royalties and streaming deals. It has been reported that each cast member in some years can earn $10-20 million in royalties alone.
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Matthew Perry dated Yasmine Bleeth in 1995. He then dated Julia Roberts from 1995 to 1996. Later, he dated Lizzy Caplan from 2006 to 2012. In November 2020, he got engaged to Molly Hurwitz. In June 2021, they called off the engagement.
Perry holds citizenship in both Canada and the United States.
Perry has battled addiction to drugs and alcohol over the years. He became addicted to Vicodin after a jet-ski accident in 1997 and completed a 28-day rehab program later that year. He entered rehab again in February 2001 for an addiction to Vicodin, methadone, amphetamines, and alcohol. Over the years he claimed to have spent $9 million to get sober. Perry stated that he doesn’t remember three years of his time on Friends due to his addiction issues, the time between seasons three and six.
Perry became a celebrity spokesperson for the National Association of Drug Court Professionals in 2011. He received a Champion of Recovery award in May 2013 from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy for opening the Perry House sober living facility in his former Malibu mansion. He sold the home and closed the rehab center in 2015. Matthew Perry has been sober since May 2021.
After the first season of “Friends” finished airing, Matthew bought his first home in LA. At the time, he told an interviewer: “It’s the law when you have a successful sitcom: Between the first and second seasons, you buy a house.” He sold that first home in 2001 for $2 million.
In 1999, he paid $3.2 million for a 6,500-square-foot mansion in Beverly Hills. He performed a major renovation and remodel on the property before selling it in 2005 for $6.9 million.
In 2005, he paid $1.7 million for a condo in West Hollywood that had once belonged to Elton John. He sold this unit in 2014 for $5.7 million.
In 2008, he paid $4.475 million for a home in LA. He sold this home in 20111 for $4.6 million.
In 2011, he paid $12 million for a new beachfront home in Malibu. He listed this home for sale for $15 million in August 2020 and sold it in January 2021 for $13.1 million.
In 2015, Matthew sold a different home in Malibu for $10.65 million.
In 2017, Matthew paid $20 million for a large penthouse apartment in Century City, California. He listed the penthouse for sale in August 2019 for $35 million. By July 2020, he lowered the price to $27 million. In June 2021, he accepted $21.6 million. Rihanna was the buyer. Here’s a video tour of Matthew’s former penthouse:
In 2018 he sold a different Los Angeles area home for $12.5 million.
In 2020, Matthew paid $6 million for a home in LA’s Pacific Palisades neighborhood.
In June 2023, he paid $5 million for a home in the Hollywood Hills.
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