Friends series co-creator Marta Kauffman hopes that fans will remember Matthew Perry for his legacy and not for his death from an accidental drug overdose. “He is the one I had the most contact with. About two weeks before [he died] he and I were FaceTiming and he seemed really good,” Kauffman, 67, who created the sitcom with David Crane , said in an interview with London’s The Times published on Friday, August 16, for the 30th anniversary of the classic sitcom.
“Two things come to mind [about how to celebrate him]: one of them is to donate to drug treatment centers — let’s fight the disease,” she told the outlet. “And the second way is to watch Friends and remember him not as a man who died like that but as a man who was hilariously funny and brought joy to everybody.” Perry died at the age of 54 from an accidental overdose on October 28, 2023, with an autopsy revealing his death was caused by “acute effects of ketamine.
” On Thursday, August 15, authorities announced that five people had been charged in Perry’s death investigation, including his former personal assistant Kenneth Iwamasa, Erik Fleming, Jasveen Sangha (a.k.a.
“the Ketamine Queen”), Dr. Mark Chavez and Dr. Salvador Plasencia .
“These defendants took advantage of Mr. Perry’s addiction issues to enrich themselves,” U.S.
Attorney for the Central District of California Martin Estrada told reporters when the charges were announced, per CBS . “They knew what they were doing was wro.