Before Matthew Perry’s death in October 2023, the embattled actor seemed to be enjoying a renewed vigor and a zest for life, according to two men who were closest to him.
Two of the “Friends” star’s lifelong friends, brothers Brian and Chris Murray, sat down exclusively with TODAY’s Savannah Guthrie and spoke about Perry’s final year and how encouraged they were by what they saw in him.
“He was absolutely on the right path,” Brian Murray said. “He was writing. He was reading scripts. He wanted to direct. The book had just put a massive spark in his step, and he was ready to get really back into business. So that’s one of the biggest tragedies.”
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Perry’s death seemed to reflect his own predictions.
“If I suddenly died, people would be shocked, but not too many people would be surprised,” the 54-year-old once noted, according to his stepfather, “Dateline” correspondent Keith Morrison.
Perry had an open-book approach when it came to the topic of his longtime struggles with drug and alcohol abuse. He’d been in and out of rehab 15 times, and spent, by his own estimation, $9 million trying to get sober.
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Still, across interviews, his loved ones said he rallied after the release of his 2022 memoir, “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing.”
“He seemed to be so much better. He seemed to be so much more on an even keel,” Morrison told Savannah in an interview.
That mirrors what “Friends” creator Marta Kauffman told TODAY’s Hoda Kotb last year.
“He was happy and chipper,” she said of Perry before his death. “He didn’t seem weighed down by anything. He was in a really good place, which is why this seems so unfair.”
According to Chris Murray, in that final stretch, Perry displayed a passion that had been absent for some time.
“It was really, ‘Let’s go do this. Let’s go do that,’” he recalled. “And that even went beyond work, you know? Just (when) we were talking about travel and things like that. He was doing these bigger trips. We were in France together for three weeks. We were seeing him in New York for the U.S. Open.”
When they learned of his death, the timing left them reeling.
“Shocked would be a good word,” Brian Murray, who now serves on the board of the new Matthew Perry Foundation of Canada, told Savannah. “His trajectory was exactly where it should have been. He was on the go. He was looking forward to waking up every day. That’s where the shock lies.”
Perry died on Oct. 28, 2023, at 54 years old. He was found in a hot tub in his Los Angeles home. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office, the actor died of acute effects of ketamine.
Perry had been seeking out supervised ketamine therapy — which he wrote about in his memoir as well — to treat anxiety and depression. But unsupervised use of the drug is what caused his accidental overdose death, according to prosecutors.
Five people, including Perry’s assistant and a drug dealer, have been charged in connection with his death, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said in August.
Brian and Chris Murray, who had known Perry since elementary school, called Perry’s loss “tragic” and “wildly disappointing.”
The friends’ banter informed Perry’s “Friends” character, Chandler Bing, and how he was known for turning statements into questions.
“We didn’t expect the world to start speaking like that,” Chris Murray said.
“We still speak like that,” Brian said.
Through their grief, they say laughing with Perry is what they miss the most.
“Funniest guy I ever met,” Brian Murphy said.
This article first appeared on TODAY.com. Read more from TODAY here:
