Friends star Matthew Perry died of ‘acute effects of ketamine’, coroner says
- The actor, who played Chandler Bing on the hit sitcom, died at 54 after decades of struggling with addiction and related health issues
- He had been found unconscious in a hot tub at his Los Angeles home, and first responders were unable to revive him
Friends actor Matthew Perry died as a result of “the acute effects of ketamine”, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s office said on Friday.
Perry, who played Chandler Bing on the hit television sitcom from 1994-2004, died at the age of 54, having struggled for decades with addiction and related serious health issues.
“Contributing factors in Mr Perry’s death include drowning, coronary artery disease and the effects of buprenorphine [used to treat opioid use disorder],” the medical examiner said in a statement. “The manner of death is accident.”
Perry was found unconscious in a hot tub at his house in Los Angeles on October 28. First responders were unable to revive him, and an initial postmortem proved inconclusive, pending a toxicology report.
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Doctors and veterinary surgeons often employ ketamine as an anaesthetic, and researchers explore it as a treatment for depression. Underground users take it illicitly for its hallucinogenic effects.
Friends, which followed the lives of six New Yorkers navigating adulthood, dating and careers, drew a massive global following.