Matthew Perry

American-Canadian actor best known for his role as Chandler Bing in the long-running hit television series, Friends (1994-2004), earning a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series for the role.

The son of actor and model John Bennett Perry, he moved with his mother, Suzanne, to Ontario, Canada at six-months old when his folks split up. His mother worked as press secretary to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and in 1980 married TV-news anchor Keith Morrison and had four more children.

Matthew took up tennis as a kid and reached the skills of third-ranking junior doubles player in Canada. He caught the acting-bug in school and in 1984, moved to Los Angeles to check out Hollywood, living with his dad, stepmother and step-sister.

For the next decade, he served his apprenticeship in guest appearances on a variety of teen-oriented TV series. At 17, he auditioned and got a small part in his first movie, A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon, released in 1988. He graduated from high school but with little interest in college. Perry made a deal with his dad that he would start college if he did not find work as an actor within a year. Within a week he began his one-episode stints on seemingly every series available.

"Sitcom-hell" was good training but was leading nowhere when he joined the just-forming cast of Friends. When the show made its debut on NBC’s Fall 1994 schedule, it shot to immediate success and its six co-stars to international stardom.

Whenever the sitcom was on hiatus, Perry took roles in films such as Fools Rush In (1997), Almost Heroes (1998) and The Whole Nine Yards (2000). He added a new home, wardrobe and Porsche to his life, along with a nose job to soften his profile and a few gorgeous women by his side.

On 4 June 1997, he checked into a drug rehab center suffering from "chemical dependency on a prescription medication," Hollywood’s most recent occupational hazard.