Post: What Was Matthew Perry’s Cause of Death? Inside the Beloved Actor’s Final Hours — and His Harrowing Alleged Last Words

Peacock’s new docuseries ‘Matthew Perry: A Hollywood Tragedy’ explores the actor’s final days and the investigation after his death

22 Comments Matthew Perry poses at a photocall for "The End Of Longing", a new play which he wrote and stars in at The Playhouse Theatre, on February 8, 2016. The world lost a friend when Matthew Perry died suddenly in October 2023 from an accidental ketamine overdose .

Though Perry had struggled with alcoholism and opioid addiction for years, the actor — who famously starred as Chandler Bing on Friends from 1994 to 2004 — had been working on his sobriety in the years prior to his death. In October 2022, ahead of the release of his memoir Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing , Perry told PEOPLE that he felt “safely sober” and confident that he was “safe from going into the dark side of everything again.”

But the Emmy Award winner was also candid about his own mortality — and how many second chances at life he had been given over the years. Perry’s multiple near-death experiences, including a five-month hospital stay in 2018 , left Perry “grateful to be alive.”

“I think they’ll be surprised at how bad it got at certain times and how close to dying I came,” Perry said to the readers of his memoir. “I say in the book that if I did die, it would shock people, but it wouldn’t surprise anybody. And that’s a very scary thing to be living with.”

Why Were Arrests Made in Connection with Matthew Perry’s Death? A Timeline of the Investigation

Almost exactly one year later, Perry’s tragic prediction came true: On Oct. 28, 2023, the Friends star was found dead in his jacuzzi — the result of a ketamine overdose. Though his death was ruled accidental by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, five people were eventually charged in connection with Perry’s drug overdose, including his live-in personal assistant and two doctors.

Now, a Peacock docuseries is taking a deeper look into Perry’s sudden death — and the people in his circle being held responsible for it. […]

What Was Matthew Perry’s Cause of Death? Inside the Beloved Actor’s Final Hours — and His Harrowing Alleged Last Words