Although he is still grieving, Matthew Perry's loved ones are turning his death into a legacy of helping others

CNN
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Matthew Perry often spoke about how much he wanted to help people. A year after his death, those who loved him are healing with the same feeling in their minds.

“It's been hard for everyone,” Perry's sister Caitlin Morrison said in a recent interview with CNN.

Morrison, the daughter of Suzanne Morrison and Perry's stepfather, “Dateline” correspondent Keith Morrison, serves as executive director of the Matthew Perry Foundation of Canada, which was launched just last week.

It has been the actor's long-time dream to help others struggling with addiction. Now those who knew him best are working to make his wish a reality in his absence.

The Matthew Perry Foundation of Canada focuses on providing housing, mental health, career and financial support to people in their first year of recovery as they navigate what Morrison described as a “very delicate time in early sobriety.” Time that she had experienced herself Perry also struggles with it.

“I remember him saying a few times that that first year was just a beast. There were so many obstacles and so many difficulties,” she remembers. “We thought it would fit right in with what he wanted to do, which was to say, 'Well, let's help people.' Let's help people overcome this hurdle, which was such a high and difficult hurdle at the beginning of his fight.'”

Perry's mother, his longtime friend Brian Murray and Cara Vaccarino, president and CEO of Canadian mental health research firm The Royal, are also involved in the organization.

Morrison said committing to the task helped her own healing.

“If the work I'm doing right now saves a family from feeling this way, that's an alleviation of my own grief,” she added.

Perry is best known for his role as the quick-witted and lovable Chandler Bing on Friends alongside Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer and Matt LeBlanc from 1994 to 2004. He also played Oscar Madison in the 2015 reboot of Friends, The Odd Couple series and appeared in films such as 17 Again, The Whole Nine Yards and Fools Rush In, among others.

His acting style tended to be incredibly funny, but could also transition into vulnerability and humanity with charming ease. It was always uniquely his own.

Behind the scenes, he struggled with addiction, which he wrote about in his 2022 memoir “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing.” By speaking publicly about it, Perry wanted to bring comfort and healing to those who faced the same adversities he did.

Perry died in October 2023 at his home in Pacific Palisades. He was 54 years old.

According to the autopsy report from the Los Angeles Medical Examiner's Office, his death was a result of the “acute effects of ketamine” and subsequent drowning.

Since then, five people have been charged in connection with his death.

Three of the five people charged have taken plea deals, while the other two are scheduled to go on trial this spring.

In November 2023, days after Perry's death, Lisa Kasteler and Doug Chapin—his former longtime publicist and manager, respectively—founded the Matthew Perry Foundation in California. Chapin jokingly calls it “the last order we received from our customer.”

“And we implemented it immediately,” he said.

The organization is sponsored and supported by the National Philanthropic Trust, which supports the Matthew Perry Foundation in providing resources and funding to West Coast-based organizations working to combat addiction in their communities.

Chapin and Kasteler said stigma played a role in the challenges Perry faced in his own recovery journey and that combating that stigma was one of their main goals.

“I know if Matthew hadn’t been ashamed, he would be here,” Kasteler said. “If all we do is get rid of the stigma that comes with it, because it just leads to so many other things, then I’ll be happy.”

Kasteler – who Perry affectionately referred to as her “favorite client” – was planning to retire after a decades-long career as head of the PR agency Wolf Kasteler before Perry died. Today she serves as the foundation's executive director. Chapin is chairman of the board of the foundation.

Acknowledging how rare it is in the entertainment industry to have such a long-standing, deeply personal relationship with a client, Kasteler and Chapin said their continued work with the foundation over the past year has helped keep Perry close to their hearts .

“Retirement didn’t exactly work out,” Kasteler said. “But that’s okay, because I think this is the most important work I’ve ever done.”

Chapin added: “He still feels alive in many ways. He is still at the center of our lives and we still essentially work for him. It keeps him alive. So it’s one thing that helps on those tough days.”

Many of Perry's former co-stars expressed their sadness openly.

His Friends cast members issued a statement in the days following his death, but individually they continued to speak about the pain of his absence.

Last year, Aniston wrote in a tribute: “When you can truly SIT in that grief, you can feel moments of joy and gratitude that you loved someone so much. And we loved him very much.”

His “Friends” cast members weren’t the only ones. Over the course of his career, Perry has been part of several ensemble casts.

In a recent interview with CNN, Yvette Nicole Brown, who starred with Perry and Thomas Lennon in “The Odd Couple,” remembered Perry as “an open book” whose loss taught her to “cherish every moment.”

“You don’t know when the last time you’re going to talk to someone is,” she said. “That’s the biggest lesson from him.”

Although Brown considered Perry a professional, she admitted she was also a fan. For the first few days on set, she tried to contain her excitement by only looking Perry in the eye when necessary. Perry got it.

“He said, ‘Yvette, come on. It's me. “We are here together,” she remembers. “He was very conscious of his impact – and not from a conceited or arrogant perspective – and he wanted people to feel comfortable. Above all, Matthew wanted people to feel comfortable.”

Perry always cared about people and wanted them to be well, Brown said – whether they were co-stars or a stranger going through their own journey through addiction.

“That's why I continue to say yes to talking about him, because I don't want anything else that comes out in this salacious space to overshadow his heart and his kindness, his friendship,” she said. “The circumstances under which he left here and the people involved should not be the final word on who he was as a person. He was so much more than that, so much more than that.”