Remembering Matthew Perry the Way He Wished to Be Remembered After He Passed Away At Age 54

“Friends” star Matthew Perry wanted to be remembered for helping others. And that is how people are remembering Perry, who passed away at age 54 in his home on Saturday. Producer and comedian Hank Azaria posted a video…

Jessica Marie BaumgartnerOct 30, 20233 min read

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Perry experienced a very public battle with alcohol and pills, but turned his Malibu home into a men’s sober

Addiction recovery

center in 2013,

People Magazine

reported. He stated, “The interesting reason that I can be so helpful to people now is that I screwed up so often.”

“It’s nice for people to see that somebody who once struggled in their life is not struggling anymore,” Perry added.

In 2015, Perry was honored by the Phoenix House Rehabilitation Center with the Phoenix Rising Award, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Upon receiving the honor he joked, “I’m an award-winning alcoholic, I guess.”

He then declared, “I shouldn’t be getting an award; Phoenix House should be getting an award.”

Perry advocated for sobriety and helping others. Actress Mira Sorvino posted to X, formerly Twitter, noting, “I want to leave Matthew Perry’s own words here as the way we remember him.”

She shared an excerpt from his autobiography where he wrote about his wish for how he wanted to be remembered.

He wrote, “I’ve had a lot of ups and downs in my life. I’m still working through it personally, but the best thing about me is that if an alcoholic or drug addict comes up to me and says, ‘Will you help me?’ I will always say, ‘Yes, I know how to do that. I will do that for you even if I can’t always do it for myself.’”

He concluded, “When I die, I know people will talk about ‘Friends,’ ‘Friends,’ ‘Friends.’ And I’m glad of that, happy I’ve done some solid work as an actor, as well as given people multiple chances to make fun or my struggles on the world wide web… but when I die, as far as my so-called accomplishments go, it would be nice if ‘Friends’ were listed far behind the things I did to help other people.”