Mumbai, Oct 29 (IANS): Actor Matthew Perry, who famously played the role of Chandler Bing on the superhit sitcom ‘Friends’, passed away on Sunday as he was found dead in a hot tub at his Los Angeles home. ‘Friends’ is considered to be one of the greatest sitcoms in the history of television and a lot of credit for that goes to Perry.
His portrayal of a guy who grew up as a troubled child from the separation of his parents, and his awkwardness manifests in his razorsharp sarcastic comments. In fact, Chandler is synonymous with the term sarcasm, and of course his weird dance next to his best friend and roommate Joey Tribbiani.
While the characters in the show was carefully crafted with each of them standing out because of their traits, it was Chandler Bing who won hearts first as a carefree and overly sarcastic guy and then as a caring husband to Courteney Cox’s character of Monica Geller in the second half of the show’s season run.
In a way Matthew Perry’s Chandler was the soul of ‘Friends’ who held together the show’s narrative which is a rare feat for a comic character.
During the course of the show’s 10-year run, Perry struggled with substance abuse.He gained a lot of weight owing to the same, and drastically shed it after the ending of season 6 of the show.
Perry’s Chandler boasts of some of the most loved moments from the series be it his struggle with addiction of smoking (who could forget him accidentally spraying an air freshener in his mouth rather than a mouth freshener to kill off the cigarette smell) or him in a bathtub after a “long hard day” or the one when he broke the news to Jennifer Aniston’s Rachel Green about David Schwimmer’s Ross Geller being head over heels for her.
Chandler was a well-rounded character that rendered multiple facets to the show’s narrative. It’s unfortunate that the guy who brought Chandler to life, bid adieu to life when there was so much for him to live and explore.
For a generation, Matthew Perry will always be Chandler Bing for the lovers of the show and for those men who have nobody but their roommates in big cities to fall back on, be it for humour or for emotional support.