Matthew Perry: Prelude to “Friends”

Matthew Perry had a lot of roles before "Friends", including a three-episode stint in the sitcom "Growing Pains" in 1989. Here he is at right with co-star Tracey Gold.

Source: https://www.slashfilm.com/1452538/matthew-perry-sitcom-before-friends/

(May be subject to copyright)

Matthew Perry, at age 24, was the youngest member of the “Friends” cast when it started. Yet he also had quite a bit of experience that got him to that point, much of it in the 1980s.

He was always my favourite, not only because I liked the razor sharp wit of Chandler Bing, but because he was Canadian. A good chunk of American shows with ensemble casts have at least one Canadian.

It was with much of sadness, and a heavy heart, I learned today that Matthew Perry died, as a result of drowning related to a hot tub.

He was far too young, and I paused to reflect on his background in the 1980s, where I learned some interesting things about his work and an interesting connection in his family.

The early years
Matthew Perry and I would have been classmates, so we were very close in age, yet we lived very different lives.

He was born in the States, but was raised by his mother mostly in Ottawa. She was Suzanne Marie Morrison, journalist and press secretary to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. She separated from Perry’s birth father actor John Bennett Perry, when Matthew was a year old and she went on to marry Canadian broadcast journalist Keith Morrison.

Perry would get into tennis, becoming a top-ranked junior player in Canada. He moved to live with his father in Los Angeles when he was 15, where competition was tougher. He took up acting at that point as well, and graduated from high school in 1987 – the same year I did.

The parallels stop there.

You oughta be in Pictures
Matthew Perry’s first credited role was in a show called “240-Robert”, which was about paramedics and search and rescue, and starred Mark Harmon and Joanna Cassidy. It only lasted 16 episodes from 1979 to 1981

Perry had guest spots in “Charles in Charge” in 1985 and “Silver Spoons” in 1986. He starred in a short-lived comedy called “Second Chance”, which was re-tooled as “Boys Will be Boys” in the 1987-1988 season. It lasted just 21 episodes. He would also have guest spots in “Just the Ten of Us” and “Highway to Heaven” both in 1988; “Empty Nest” in 1989; and “Growing Pains” in 1989 for three episodes. He played Carol’s boyfriend who dies in a drunk-driving incident.

Forgettable
Perry made his film debut in 1988 in “A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon”, starring River Phoenix.

I went to that movie, but do not remember a minute of it. My best friend Chris Vining and I went with these friends of ours named Erena and Kathy. They went to high school together, and roomed together just like Vining and I. They had another high school friend named Janine. She got tickets to this movie and invited us all along.

At that time in my life, I was in my second semester of my first year of university, and I was really burning the candle at both ends. I recall us all sitting down at the theatre, the lights going down, and I promptly drifted off. I think Vining tapped me a couple times because I may have been snoring, but I can’t be sure.

The next thing I am sure of is coming to as the movie ended.

I looked over at Erena and she said, “Oh Janine, that was a terrible movie.”

I guess I wouldn’t meet Matthew Perry for years after all.

The years after
He would continue to act on television, playing Valerie Bertinelli’s younger brother in “Sydney” in 1990; “Who’s the Boss?”, also in 1990; “Beverly Hills 90210” opposite his friend and fellow Canadian Jason Priestley in 1991; “Dream On” in 1992; “Sibs” in 1993”; and star in another short-lived sitcom called “Home Free” in 1993, which lasted 13 episodes.

In 1994, he began a 10-year run as wise-cracking Chandler Bing on “Friends”.

The rest is history.

Parting thoughts
Initially, I could not believe Matthew Perry was dead. It just seemed inconceivable. We are about the same age, and that just seems too young to die.

When his death was confirmed, and the tributes began pouring in, I was surprised to learn of his connection to the Trudeaus, and even more surprised by the fact his step-father is Keith Morrison. Growing up, I watched Keith Morrison, first on the CTV National News, then as one of the first hosts of “Midday” on CBC.

Perry really did have deep roots to Canada, and that was one of the reasons I always liked him. He really was one of my favourites from movies such as “The Whole Nine Yards”, which I did a movie review for in journalism school, as well as his TV shows after “Friends”, such as “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip”, “Mr. Sunshine”, and a re-boot of “The Odd Couple”, where he played Oscar Madison.

Yet it all really began in the 1980s.

Rest in peace Matthew Perry, from one 1987 grad to another.