Things That Came Out About Matthew Perry After He Died

While Matthew Perry had a famous father and worked steadily across network TV and Hollywood movies throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, he only became a superstar via a role with which he'd always be closely associated. From 1994 to 2004, he portrayed wisecracking, self-deprecating, lovelorn Chandler Bing on the era-defining mega-hit sitcom "Friends." The quippiest, wittiest one of the bunch, with a personality not too far removed from his own natural inclination, Perry received an Emmy nomination for his work as Chandler, which made him a permanent part of the TV firmament, going on to star in shows like "The West Wing," "Mr. Sunshine," and "Go On."

On October 28, 2023, Perry died at his home in Los Angeles. The actor was 54 years old, and one of the sad details found in Perry's autopsy report showed that drugs were a factor, triggering a thorough investigation. As detailed in the 2025 Peacock documentary "Matthew Perry: A Hollywood Tragedy," here's everything discovered about Perry, particularly his addiction and substance abuse issues, following the actor's untimely death.

Matthew Perry discussed the tragic details of his life, such as alcoholism and opiate addiction, in his 2022 memoir, "Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing." He sought sobriety throughout adulthood, trying traditional rehabilitation programs and enrolling in a therapeutic ketamine program. Once a street drug, ketamine can be an effective treatment for mental health issues, and Perry started taking it in a controlled, medical setting, consistently receiving small doses administered by a doctor.

According to the Peacock documentary, "Matthew Perry: A Hollywood Tragedy," Perry became addicted to the drug that he thought would help him break his addictions to other substances. In an eerie, queasy foreshadowing of his death, Perry, a Batman super-fan, would post messages to X, formerly known as Twitter, discussing how he was in his home jacuzzi overlooking Hollywood, and that he wanted to be called "Mattman." In these moments, Perry was intoxicated on ketamine that he'd obtained from sources beyond his regular, credible, clinical source. 

On October 28, 2023, Perry started the day with an injection of ketamine delivered by his assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, played pickleball, received another shot of the drug in the early afternoon, and then 45 minutes later, demanded a third, extra-large dose. Iwamasa left Perry, who then went into his jacuzzi. When the assistant returned a few hours later, he discovered Perry unresponsive in the jacuzzi, and authorities pronounced him dead on arrival.

In December 2023, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Office released its autopsy regarding Matthew Perry. It indicated a death caused by acute ketamine intoxication, as the amount of the drug in his system was much higher than he'd received from his clinical session more than a week earlier. Additionally, because the body processes ketamine within hours, it showed that Perry had taken it just before he died and that he must have acquired it from a shady or illegal source.  

Several departments participated in an investigation led by the U.S. Attorney's Office, and the results were announced on August 15, 2024, by way of indictments of five individuals. The filing, as recounted in "Matthew Perry: A Hollywood Tragedy," told the story of how Perry came to overdose on ketamine. Kenneth Iwamasa, Perry's personal assistant, admitted to injecting the actor with three shots of the drug on the day he died. Perry's demand for ketamine beyond what he could obtain from a doctor led to Iwamasa getting it from Dr. Salvador Plasencia, who purchased it from Dr. Mark Chavez. According to ABC News, they ultimately sold Perry around 20 vials — which cost them around $250 — for more than $55,000. Dr. Plasencia, who once administered the drug to Perry in the back of a car, witnessed the actor nearly overdose, so he taught Iwamasa how to perform the injections. The doctors' indicted distributors: B-movie director Erik Fleming and Jasveen Sangha, a North Hollywood drug supplier known in criminal circles as "the Ketamine Queen."

Following a months-long investigation by various local, state, and federal jurisdictions into how Matthew Perry acquired and received the large amounts of ketamine that caused his death, the U.S. Attorney's office in Los Angeles issued indictments calling for the arrest of five people responsible. "These defendants took advantage of Mr. Perry's addiction issues to enrich themselves," U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said at a press conference (via ABC News). "They knew what they were doing was risking great danger to Mr. Perry, but they did it anyway."

Legally attributing responsibility and culpability for Perry's death to those who supplied the drugs is part of a changing prosecution strategy and cultural shift in how addiction is perceived and treated. "In the past, we used to call these things overdose deaths and do more blaming of the victim. We don't do that anymore," Estrada said in "Matthew Perry: A Hollywood Tragedy." "We blame the drug dealers, the drug sellers, for taking advantage of those addiction issues to cause death or serious injury and that's why we bring these cases."

In the 2025 Peacock documentary, "Matthew Perry: A Hollywood Tragedy," Morgan Fairchild, who played Perry's character's mother on "Friends," revealed that Perry frequently reached out to others experiencing the same substance abuse issues that he'd endured. Hank Azaria, Perry's close friend and "Friends" co-star, revealed that the actor had been extraordinarily helpful in helping him find sobriety. "The night I went into AA, Matthew brought me in," Azaria said in an Instagram video. "I got to tell him this, as a sober person, he was so caring and giving and wise, and he totally helped me get sober. And, I really wish he could've found it in himself to stay with the sober life more consistently."

Immediately after the actor's death in 2023, the Matthew Perry Foundation of the U.S. was launched. Around the one-year anniversary of Perry's death in 2024, the actor's family announced the creation of the Matthew Perry Foundation of Canada. Both organizations aim to provide research funding into the causes and treatments of addiction while also helping to support sobriety-seeking individuals with post-rehabilitation care. Such programs were a stated goal of Perry in his final years. "He made it a big focus of his life to help other people, to encourage other people to say, 'I need help,'" Perry's sister, Caitlin Morrison, told NBC's "Today." "He tried to make people see that that was a brave thing."