Matthew Perry

Matthew Perry

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Birth name: Matthew Langford Perry
Date of birth: 19 August 1969
Place of birth: Williamstown, Massachusetts, USA
Nickname: Matty
Height: 6′ 1″ (1.85 m)

Famous Quote: “There are two ways to go when you hit that crossroads in your life: There is the bad way, when you sort of give up, and then there is the really hard way, when you fight back. I went the hard way and came out of it okay. Now, I’m sitting here and doing great.”

Contact Address and Autograph: Addresses and fan mail information

Matthew Perry
Doug Chapin Management
1416 Havenhurst Drive, Apt Gf1
West Hollywood, CA 90046-3884, USA 

Biography:  Matthew Steven Perry (born August 19, 1969) is a Canadian-American Emmy- and Golden Globe-nominated actor and comedian, best known for his role as Chandler Bing in the hugely popular television sitcom Friends, a part he played for 10 years. He recently portrayed Matt Albie on the NBC series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

Handsome leading man Matthew Perry has managed to translate the fame and popularity he garnered from playing Chandler Bing on the hit NBC sitcom Friends into an increasingly successful film career as a romantic comedy lead. Born in Massachusetts, the son of actor John Bennett Perry, his parents divorced when he was still a baby. His mother got full custody and moved Perry to Ottawa, Canada, where she worked as a political assistant (years later, Perry’s mother would work as a press secretary for prime minister Pierre Trudeau). 

As a youth, Perry was an extremely talented tennis player and was once ranked third in Canada’s doubles competition. At the same time, the teenaged Perry was interested in acting and had been appearing in school productions since he was 13. At age 15, he relocated to L.A. to join his father, in hopes of becoming both a tennis pro and a working actor. However, in 1984, Perry suffered a devastating loss during a major tennis event and decided that he would have more success as an actor. Shortly after the fateful sporting match, he debuted on an episode of the sitcom Charles in Charge. 

Perry was born in Williamstown, MA. His mother, Suzanne Jane Louise Morrison (née Langford), is a Canadian journalist and former press secretary to Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, and his father, John Bennett Perry, is an American actor and former model. Perry holds dual US/Canadian citizenship. His parents divorced before his first birthday and his mother is re-married to Keith Morrison, a broadcast journalist. Perry was raised by his mother in Ottawa. While growing up in Ontario, Perry took a keen interest in tennis and soon became a top-ranked junior player. He was enrolled at Rockcliffe Park Public School, Lisgar Collegiate Institute, and Ashbury College.

Perry moved from Ottawa to Los Angeles to pursue acting. For high school, he attended The Buckley School in Sherman Oaks. While at Buckley, Perry was featured as George Gibbs in “Our Town” and appeared as a junior in a production of “The Miracle Worker”. Patty Duke attended and praised for the young Perry’s convincing role as Helen’s brother Jimmy. He was also featured in “The Sound of Music” as a junior. In his senior year, director Tim Hillman had planned a production of “The Elephant Man” specifically to feature Perry as John Merrick along with Vanessa Smith, and future Les Miserables star Lisa Capps. He then got his professional break at age 18. On being cast in “A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon” with River Phoenix, Perry withdrew from Elephant Man and ended his high school acting career. Perry also pursued improv comedy at the LA Connection in Sherman Oaks while still in high school, quickly becoming a featured performer.

Though Perry was still in high school, it rapidly became apparent that his education would take a backseat to acting. While in a restaurant, he was spotted by director William Richert, who offered the 16-year-old a small role opposite River Phoenix in A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon (1988). Though Perry wanted to become a successful professional actor, his father was pressuring him to attend U.C.L.A. As a compromise, Perry agreed that if he could not find an acting job in the first year after high school graduation, he would attend college. Not long after that, he was hired by Fox television to star in the series Boys Will Be Boys. The series bombed, but Perry was then starred opposite Valerie Bertinelli in a new series, Sydney. While this show too was short-lived, it started Perry on a professional guest-star career that would land him roles on such series as Beverly Hills 90210, Growing Pains, and his father’s show 240 Roberts. He made his sophomore film appearance in She’s Out of Control (1989) opposite Ami Dolenz and Tony Danza. 

After some guest appearances in late 1980s television, it was his intention to enroll at the University of Southern California, but when he was offered the lead role of Chazz Russell in Second Chance he became noticed on the acting scene. Perry originally starred alongside Kiel Martin when the series premiered in 1987, but after 13 episodes the format changed: Second Chance became Boys Will Be Boys, Perry was elevated to top-billing status, and the plots re-focused on the adventures of Chazz and his teenage friends. Despite the shift, the show ran for only one season. When it concluded, Perry stayed in Los Angeles and made guest appearances on television programs, such as Growing Pains and Beverly Hills 90210.

In the early 1990s he attempted to secure an audition for the pilot Six of One, later to be known as Friends, by Marta Kauffman and David Crane, both of whom he had worked with on Dream On. However, due to previous commitments to the pilot LAX 2194, he was not initially considered for an audition. When he did eventually get a reading, he landed the part he is best known for, the role of Chandler Bing. The program was hugely successful and Perry, along with his co-stars, gained wide renown among television viewers.

As well as his successful career on Friends, Perry has appeared in films such as Fools Rush In (alongside father, John Bennett Perry and Salma Hayek), Three to Tango, The Whole Nine Yards (alongside Bruce Willis) and its sequel The Whole Ten Yards, and Serving Sara.

In the early ’90s, Perry and his colleague, Andrew Hill, penned the pilot to a situation comedy about a bunch of friends in their twenties who like hanging out. They called their show Maxwell House and sold it to Universal. They pitched the idea to NBC, but the network had a similar vehicle in the works. Instead of taking Perry and Hill’s show, they offered to co-star Perry in their program, Friends. The first episode aired in 1994 and became a Top Ten hit. In features, Perry had his first major success with the romantic comedy Fools Rush In (1997). 

While known primarily for his comedic roles, Perry has carved out a career in drama as well, particularly in his portrayal of Associate White House Counsel Joe Quincy in Aaron Sorkin’s The West Wing. His three appearances in that series (twice in the fourth season and once in the fifth) earned him two Emmy nominations for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series in 2003 and 2004. He also guested as attorney Todd Merrick in two episodes near the end of Ally McBeal’s 5-season run, including a 2-hour special intended to revive the legal comedy-drama.

After Friends wrapped up, Perry made his directorial debut in an episode of the 4th season of Bill Lawrence’s sitcom Scrubs (which he also guest starred in, as “Murray Marks” an operator of a small airport’s traffic control team. Murray is asked to donate a kidney to his father Gregory, played by Perry’s real father).

He starred in the TNT movie, The Ron Clark Story, which premiered on August 13, 2006. Perry played Ron Clark, a small town teacher who relocates to the toughest class in the country. He received a Golden Globe nomination as well as an Emmy nomination for the performance.

In 2006-2007, Perry appeared in Aaron Sorkin’s hour-long drama Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Perry played Matt Albie alongside Bradley Whitford’s Danny Tripp, a writer-director duo brought in to help save a failing sketch show. Perry’s character was considered to be substantially based on Sorkin’s own personal experiences, particularly in television.

In 2006 he began filming Numb, a comedy drama about a chronically depressed writer. The film’s tentative release date has been pushed back several times, and is currently Winter 2008. He also appeared in David Mamet’s Sexual Perversity in Chicago in London. Perry is set to appear in the movie 17 Again, a comedy about a 36 year old man who transforms back into his 17 year old self. The movie also stars Zac Efron.

Perry developed an addiction to alcohol and to ease this he then became addicted to Vicodin. He first started taking prescription drugs after a jet ski accident in 1997 and checked himself into Hazelden. In 2000 he was hospitalized with pancreatitis as a result of his addictions. During that summer he lost 20 pounds, appearing noticeably thinner during the 7th season premiere of Friends, in a scene that continued directly from the 6th season finale.

During the filming of Serving Sara, Perry checked into rehab. The last 13 days of filming were held up until he was well enough to return. The filming schedule on Friends was altered so scenes not featuring his character Chandler were shot first. His recovery once again caused weight fluctuations, which are particularly noticeable in Serving Sara.

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