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This is Fresh Air.

I'm David B. In Cooley.

The actor Matthew Perry died last weekend, found unresponsive in his hot tub in Los Angeles.

He was 54 years old.

In the last years of his life, he was best known for his efforts to discuss and combat

substance abuse, including his own.

Last year, he wrote a best-selling memoir detailing his own struggles with addiction.

Its title was Friends, Lovers, and The Big Terrible Thing.

But Matthew Perry became known and became a beloved television star as one of the ensemble cast members of the hit NBC sitcom Friends.

That series ran for 10 seasons from 1994 to 2004, and Perry's character of Chandler Bing

was a major part of its success.

Hey, new wallet, huh?

Oh, yeah, it was time.

The old condom ring and the leather, it just doesn't say cumul anymore.

Is this a gym card? Oh yeah, gym member. I try to go four times a week, but I've missed the last 1,200 times.

Chandler was sarcastic and lovable. And when his relationship with one friend, Courtney Cox as Monica, turned

romantic, the audience's delight at this pairing became a pop culture event. During the

episode in which Chandler finally proposes marriage to

...