Trudeau Says Passing of Schoolmate, Actor Matthew Perry, ‘Shocking and Saddening’

(L–R) The cast of TV show "Friends" Lisa Kudrow, Jennifer Aniston, Matthew Perry, and Courteney Cox at the 53rd Annual Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills on Jan. 21, 1996. Mike Nelson/AFP via Getty Images

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the sudden death of his elementary schoolmate, actor Matthew Perry, was “shocking and saddening.”

“I’ll never forget the schoolyard games we used to play, and I know people around the world are never going to forget the joy he brought them. Thanks for all the laughs, Matthew,” Mr. Trudeau posted on X on Oct. 28.

“Matthew Perry’s passing is shocking and saddening,” said Mr. Trudeau. “You were loved – and you will be missed.”

Mr. Perry’s mother at one point worked for Mr. Trudeau’s father, Pierre Trudeau, who was prime minister at the time.

Mr. Perry, who played Chandler Bing on the television comedy sitcom “Friends,” was found dead at his home in Los Angeles on Oct. 28. He was 54.

“Friends,” which premiered on Sept. 22, 1994, and ended after 10 seasons in 2004, was one of the most watched television shows in history.

“We are devastated to learn of Matthew Perry’s passing,” the official “Friends” Twitter account said in a statement late on Saturday, Oct. 28. “He was a true gift to us all. Our heart goes out to his family, loved ones, and all of his fans.”

Mr. Perry, who made appearances in other shows and movies besides Friends, had last posted on Instagram on Oct. 23, showing him sitting in a hot tub with swirling water, overlooking city lights. “Oh, so warm water swirling around makes you feel good? I’m Mattman,” he said.

School With PM

Born in Massachusetts on Aug. 19, 1969, Mr. Perry grew up in Ottawa. His mother, Suzanne Morrison, a former Canadian journalist, worked for then-prime minister Pierre Trudeau, Justin Trudeau’s father, as a press secretary.

Mr. Perry and the younger Mr. Trudeau went to the same elementary school. Mr. Perry, in March 2017, told talk show host Jimmy Kimmel that he and a friend “beat up” Mr. Trudeau when Mr. Perry was in the fifth grade. He said he went to school “a couple of years ahead” of Mr. Trudeau.

“I have a story about him that I’m not proud of,” he told Mr. Kimmel.

“I was reminded this, my friend Chris Murray, who is also in the fifth grade in Canada reminded me that we actually beat up Justin Trudeau,” said the actor. “We both beat him up. And I think he was excelling in a sport that we weren’t. So it was pure jealousy.”

He said he was not bragging about it.

“This is terrible. I was a stupid kid.”

Addiction Struggles

The actor’s 2022 memoir, “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing,” outlined Mr. Perry’s ongoing struggle with addiction, to prescription drugs and alcohol. He had been clean since May 2021.

“I’ve probably spent $9 million or something trying to get sober,” he wrote. “My friends call me Matty. And I should be dead,” he said.

Mr. Perry told People Magazine in October 2022 that he wrote the book to help others struggling with addiction.

“I wanted to share when I was safe from going into the dark side of everything again,” he said. “I had to wait until I was pretty safely sober — and away from the active disease of alcoholism and addiction — to write it all down. And the main thing was, I was pretty certain that it would help people,” he said.

His book says that at one point, he was using methadone and Xanax and drinking a quart of vodka a day. “Fifty-five Vicodin a day,” he said. At one point, he was in a coma and “escaped death really narrowly.”

He said he went to rehab 15 times, attended more than 6,000 Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, and had two times a week therapy for 30 years. At age 49, he almost died after opioid overuse caused his colon to burst. He was in a coma for two weeks, hospitalized for five months, and used a colostomy bag for the next nine months.

“I think they'll be surprised at how bad it got at certain times and how close to dying I came,“ he says. ”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,” he told People.

Reuters, The Associated Press, and Mimi Nguyen Ly contributed to this report.