Matthew Perry's Heartbreaking Wish for How He Wanted to Be Remembered

Matthew Perry knew that most people would primarily remember him for his work on Friends once he had passed, but he wanted that to be different.

The 54-year-old actor, who was found unresponsive at his Los Angeles home on Saturday, became an international superstar on the sitcom as the sarcastic Chandler Bing. As one of the six stars on arguably the most popular TV show of all time, Perry understood it would be that which stood out in his long list of accomplishments.

But he really wanted to be remembered for how he helped raise awareness of drug and alcohol misuse. The actor, who was very open about his own problems with substances, said he had tried to use his platform to help others.

"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 in 2022 during an interview with Q's Tom Power. "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."

In his 2022 memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, Perry revealed how he was only given a 2 percent chance to live after his colon burst from opioid overuse.

"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 of 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 try to help other people. I know it won't happen, but it would be nice," he told the podcaster.

"And I created the Perry House in Malibu, a sober-living facility for men. I also wrote my play, The End of Longing, which is a personal message to the world, an exaggerated form of me as a drunk. I had something important to say to people like me, and to people who love people like me."

He added: "Wonderful things happened in my life — I'm incredibly grateful for all of them," he said in his interview with Power. "But that's the ticket for me, is helping people on a large scale or helping, you know, one guy and seeing the light turn on."

Perry's co-star in the 1994 film Parallel Lives, Mira Sorvino, shared Perry's words in tribute after his death.

"I want to leave Matthew Perry's own words here as the way we remember him. There will never be another like him - he lit up so many hearts in so many ways. Godspeed to Paradise!" she wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Having tried his first drink at age 14, Perry realized that not even finding fame on TV's biggest comedy could help him overcome his problems, admitting that he couldn't watch himself on Friends because of the toll his alcoholism was taking on his body.

"Alcoholism did not care that I was on Friends," he said. "Alcoholism wants you alone; it wants you sick; and then it wants to kill you."

"I was on Friends, getting watched by 30 million people, and that's why I can't watch the show," he said. "I was, like, brutally thin and being beaten down so badly by the disease."

Perry was found in his hot tub at 4 p.m. local time by first responders, and while local authorities ruled out foul play, they said an investigation to determine the cause of death is ongoing.