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    Matthew Perry’s Assistant and Doctors Charged With Getting Him Ketamine

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    Five people have been charged with a conspiracy to distribute the powerful anesthetic that led to the death of the “Friends” star. Three of them are pleading guilty.Matthew Perry’s personal assistant, two doctors and two others have been indicted and charged with providing the ketamine that caused his death.Jason LaVeris/FilmMagicMatthew Perry’s personal assistant, two doctors and two others have been indicted and charged with providing the ketamine that caused the death of Mr. Perry, a star on the television show “Friends,” the authorities said on Thursday.In documents filed in federal court in California, prosecutors said that Mr. Perry’s assistant and an acquaintance had worked with two doctors and a drug dealer to procure tens of thousands of dollars worth of ketamine for Mr. Perry, who had long struggled with substance abuse and addiction.The actor, who gained sitcom superstardom as Chandler Bing on “Friends,” was discovered floating face down in a hot tub at his home in Los Angeles on Oct. 28. The Los Angeles County medical examiner’s office said in an autopsy report that Mr. Perry, 54, had died of “acute effects of ketamine.”An indictment filed in federal court on Wednesday detailed grand jury charges against Jasveen Sangha, who prosecutors said was known as “the Ketamine Queen,” and Dr. Salvador Plasencia, known as “Dr. P.”Ms. Sangha maintained a “stash house” in North Hollywood, the indictment said, and Dr. Plasencia, a physician at an urgent care center, was among those who worked to get the ketamine to Mr. Perry despite knowing he had a history of drug abuse.Court documents say that Mr. Perry’s personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, injected him with at least 27 shots of ketamine in the five days leading up to his death, including at least three on the day he died. An indictment said that the defendants used coded language to discuss drug deals, referring to bottles of ketamine as “Dr Pepper,” “cans” and “bots.” And it said that when Dr. Plasencia texted with another doctor about how much to charge Mr. Perry for ketamine, he wrote, “I wonder how much this moron will pay” and “Lets find out.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Love a TV Show? Now You Can Live It.

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      Streamers and networks are creating live experiences to promote series like “Squid Game” and “Only Murders in the Building.” But do they amount to anything more than just marketing?On a sun-nuzzled morning in Los Angeles, 25 people filed into a narrow, windowless room. They were about to participate in “Squid Game: The Trials,” an interactive experience based on the popular, dystopian Netflix franchise.A South Korean series about an indebted man who enters a deadly tournament, “Squid Game” was a surprise hit for Netflix two years ago. In November, Netflix released a companion reality series in which 456 players competed, less lethally, for a $4.56 million prize. Now anyone with $39 — or $99 for a V.I.P. pass that includes parking and coat check — can play along in real-time. A ticket is an entree to a 70-minute roundelay of dire versions of children’s playground games, with Korean snacks, claw games and shopping to follow.The original “Squid Game, ” a savage anticapitalist satire, delights in blood sport. The reality version, though gentler, takes a dim view of human nature. But in the rooms of the interactive experience, housed on the former soundstage of “The Price Is Right,” the mood was cheerful, even giddy. “Squid Game” fans — dads and sons, friend groups, couples, a grandmother celebrating her birthday — thrilled to each callback and Easter egg. Many of them had come in tracksuit costume. Once the trials were complete (the grandmother had won, via light cheating), they happily browsed the snack stalls.Some players came to “Squid Game: The Trials” in tracksuit constumes.Jamie Lee Taete for The New York TimesThe event was held in the former home of “The Price Is Right,” but its games were much gorier.Jamie Lee Taete for The New York Times“Squid Game: The Trials” is the latest in a trend of immersive experiences designed to lever an imaginary world into our real one. Referred to as brand activations or brand experiences, these events transform television shows (and films and sometimes consumer products) into multidimensional happenings.“It’s moving and it’s organized and it’s becoming a lot more expected,” Fri Forjindam, whose company Mycotoo specializes in immersive design, said of the trend.This past year, in New York City alone, fans could snuggle on the couch during a “Friends” experience, wander through an opulent theater during an “Only Murders in the Building” experience, solve a murder at “Welcome to the Continental: The Hotel Bar Experience,” dance the night away at a ball out of “Bridgerton” or sip cocktails while ogling Carrie Bradshaw’s shoe closet. Really, the options are legion. (In 2017, the FX series “Legion” rated an experience, too.)“We are bringing a theme park to people,” Marian Lee, Netflix’s chief marketing officer, said. “We are going to where the fans are.”These participatory and walk-through experiences have been part of the media landscape for more than 20 years, but until recently they have been rare and exclusive, the province of events like Comic Con or the South by Southwest festival or some of the splashier premieres. An amalgam of theater, commerce, viral marketing and fan service, they were intended to publicize shows in ways more forceful and creative than a Sunset Boulevard billboard.“You don’t hear from people necessarily about billboards that they see,” said Barrie Gruner, Hulu’s executive vice president of marketing and publicity. “But these types of activations are what really help drive word of mouth.”In recent years, these experiences have multiplied, particularly for prestige shows. “The Walking Dead” has sponsored a zombie-ridden obstacle course. “Game of Thrones” has birthed an interactive studio tour. The pandemic accelerated the trend. Many viewers consumed unusual amounts of television during lockdown. When live events returned, marketing and publicity departments looked for innovative ways to engage those fans. Hulu debuted a “Nine Perfect Strangers” activation in 2021. The next year Netflix created elaborate experiences in multiple cities based on three of its most popular properties: “Bridgerton,” “Money Heist” and “Stranger Things.”“We’ve seen an acceleration, post-Covid, of people wanting to be out,” Lee said. “This is how fans are engaging.”Not every show or movie lends itself to an experience, but many do: Walking away from the “Squid Game” immersion, I stumbled across a lollipop-filled “Wonka” pop-up that had taken over part of a nearby shopping center.An experience based on the Netflix period dramedy “Bridgerton” was styled as a ball.NetflixAn amalgam of theater, commerce and viral marketing, the activations are designed to publicize shows and keep fans engaged.Federico Imperiale/NetflixThese activations offer titles another way to stand out, literally, amid a crowded mediascape. For series, specifically, they offer a way to retain fans between seasons.“A lot of shows can get hot for a season or two, but we’re really looking and interested in sustained success,” Gruner, from Hulu, said. “In order to do that, you need more than fans, you need advocates.”These brand extensions take different forms, which typically gesture toward older varieties of entertainment. Some resemble museum exhibits. Others, which can involve dozens of actors, resemble plays.“They’re not theater,” said Sarah Bay-Cheng, an academic who studies the intersections of theater and media. “But they are theatrical.” And now some of them are in fact theater, as in the case of “Stranger Things: The First Shadow,” a prequel that recently opened in London.Not every activation invites or demands absolute fidelity to its source material, though an experience risks disenchanting fans if it deviates too far. While streamers and networks typically outsource activations to external marketing farms, those firms tend to work closely with writers and producers to preserve the spirit of the work.“We’re all making sure that we’re coming to it from a place of authenticity,” said Forjindam, who has helped to design experiences for “Stranger Things,” “The Mandalorian” and “Westworld.” “And then from there, you break all the rules.”An “Only Murders in the Building” activation included props and costumes from the show.Mo DaoudGuests were invited to solve the mystery of the most recent season.Mo DaoudA recent “Only Murders in the Building” experience, held in September at Upper Manhattan’s United Palace theater, where the show had filmed, was a faithful, playful recreation of the show. Guests could wander onstage, backstage and through the lobby, surveying actual props and costumes from the show. Using special flashlights to illuminate clues, they could attempt to answer the most recent season’s whodunit just days before the finale aired.A week later and a few miles downtown, at “Welcome to the Continental: The Hotel Bar Experience,” fans would encounter all-new characters and an original mystery, inspired by the Peacock series “The Continental,” a prequel to the “John Wick” franchise. Inside the Beaver Building, which had lent its facade to the movies, ticket holders, who were encouraged to dress as assassins, were free to move from room to room, engaging actors at will. Or they could congregate at the bar and swallow some very strong cocktails.“We wanted guests to feel like they were the main character in their own show,” said Ollie Killick, whose company, Fever, designed the experience.But is the show really about them? Or are activations like these merely a means to a marketing end? If an experience delights fans, those fans, by documenting and posting, often in meticulous detail, become part of a show’s advertising campaign.An event to promote “The Continental,” a “John Wick” prequel, included an original mystery and cocktails.Bryan Bedder/Peacock“We do look at social buzz,” said Shannon Willett, the chief marketing officer at Peacock. “We want people to have a great time, have that great experience, post on social, talk about that experience to other people.” Though expensive to produce, such immersions will have a greater impact on fans and will likely lead to more social media impressions than a traditional billboard or print ad.Netflix’s Lee put the emphasis elsewhere. “For us, it’s about the fans,” she said. “We don’t approach it as advertising.” Netflix recently announced a plan to open destinations known as Netflix Houses, where fans can engage in rotating live experiences while also eating branded food and shopping for souvenirs.Though perhaps not conceived as an advertising ploy, a venue like this achieves some of what advertising intends, building brand identification and loyalty. And they may lack the intellectual and emotional nourishment that theatrical or museum experiences might offer.Last year, in Toronto, Bay-Cheng attended the “Bridgerton” ball. She was named the diamond of the season, which involved confetti, glitter and great fanfare. “It was just this amazing moment of totally unearned adoration,” she said.While she enjoyed the ball and understands these activations as reflecting the desire for a live experience, she worries that the form is inherently limiting, feeding fans more of what they already enjoy rather than challenging them with something new.There were true challenges at “Squid Game: The Trials.” (The marbles were nearly impossible.) And if the experience could not be reasonably mistaken for theater or art, it did provide moments of exhilaration, affection, collaboration and joy, which is more than most billboards can say.Had it felt like living inside the show? “No,” a woman said after the final challenge. “But it was fun.”Why would a person pay to immerse herself in a dystopia, albeit a fun dystopia? Mike Monello, whose company, Campfire NYC, designed the “Only Murders” experience, has one theory. If you love something, he believes, then you must want to share it, even if the thing you love, as in “Squid Game,” is a caustic drama with an alarming body count.“Opportunities like this offer people a chance to get together with your tribe and experience something unique,” Monello said. “We have the need to share in the things we love. And it’s a lot more fun to do it in person.” More

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      Best Thanksgiving Episodes to Stream: ‘Friends,’ ‘Succession’ and More

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      Thanksgiving episodes are an underrated TV staple. Here are some of the best to enjoy while you cook, eat or fade away on the couch.Note: This is an updated version of a list that originally ran in 2017.Preparing for the big binge? Whether you call the upcoming holiday Friendsgiving, Slapsgiving, the Feast of Feasts — or just, you know, Thanksgiving — this year, you can be thankful that there is plenty of TV to keep you company. Join these fictional families and friend groups while they break bread or break each other’s spirits, depending on which feels more comforting as you cook, eat and fade away on the couch. Yes, you may have seconds.‘Friends’Matthew Perry, who died last month, at 54, was the king of many a “Friends” Thanksgiving episode. Or as his character Chandler put it, the king of bad Thanksgivings. Or, as Monica’s mother put it, the Boy Who Hates Thanksgiving. (His disdain for the holiday stemmed from learning about his parents’ divorce one Thanksgiving as a child and vomiting in response.) Gradually, though, Chandler conquered his aversion, bailing out the gang with cheese sandwiches at the first Friendsgiving and later helping to prepare a batch of cranberry sauce (made, in his parlance, of tasty Chanberries). Fans with only enough room for one episode should seek out “The One With the Thanksgiving Flashbacks,” from Season 5. (Streaming on Max.)‘Rick and Morty’For the mad scientist Rick Sanchez (Justin Roiland), Thanksgiving is an ideal time to break into the National Archives and try to steal the Constitution. So what if some other national treasures are destroyed in the process? “Rick and Morty’s Thanksploitation Spectacular,” from Season 5, finds Rick on the outs with federal authorities and fomenting an elaborate scheme to score a presidential pardon. Pretty soon people start turning into turkeys while turkeys turn into humans. Your job, if you choose to accept this episode, is to make sense of all the gobbledygook. (Streaming on Max.)Lena Waithe won an Emmy for writing a “Master of None” Thanksgiving episode that tracked her character’s efforts to come out to her mother.Netflix‘Master of None’This series’s Thanksgiving episode is one of its very best. Shifting the focus from our indecisive hero, Dev (Aziz Ansari), to his lifelong friend Denise (Lena Waithe), it presents a sequence of vignettes following her through two decades of Thanksgiving dinners as she struggles to come out to her mother as a lesbian. Every element of this touching half-hour feels carefully crafted, from Angela Bassett’s emotional guest performance as Denise’s mother to the nostalgic 1990s R&B soundtrack. Waithe won an Emmy for the script — which was inspired by her own family history — becoming the first Black woman to win the award for writing in a comedy. (Streaming on Netflix.)‘Chilling Adventures of Sabrina’For mere mortals, Thanksgiving is a harvest festival. For witches, however, the equivalent Feast of Feasts is a very different celebration, with a very different main course — human rather than avian. In “Feast of Feasts,” from Season 1, the young witch Sabrina Spellman (Kiernan Shipka) is shocked to learn about this barbaric holiday ritual. (“Are we seriously taking about cannibalism?” she asks in horror.) Her rejection of this ancient tradition puts a damper on any festive feelings. (Streaming on Netflix.)‘Bob’s Burgers’A Season 3 episode is titled “An Indecent Thanksgiving Proposal,” but don’t worry — Bob and Linda Belcher’s marriage is safe. The proposal in question comes from the rich landlord, Mr. Fischoeder, who offers the Belchers five months’ free rent for a chaste evening with Linda and the family’s three children, with Bob on hand to cook. Like other schemes on the show, this one is a disaster. But Studio Ghibli fans should look out for a lovely dream sequence that pays tribute to “My Neighbor Totoro.” (Streaming on Hulu.)‘The Sopranos’Most of the episodes on this list are somewhat uplifting and work well as stand-alones. This one, titled “He Is Risen,” won’t make sense if you’ve never seen “The Sopranos,” and it is no more uplifting than any other hour of the show. But if you’re already a Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) fan, you probably don’t mind a dark holiday tale. This Season 3 episode features a car wreck, a funeral and the beginning of an extramarital relationship, along with a Soprano family Thanksgiving dinner that is surprisingly pleasant, thanks to the conspicuous absence of Tony’s most reprehensible associate, Ralph Cifaretto (Joe Pantoliano). (Streaming on Max.)James Cromwell, left, and Brian Cox in a Thanksgiving episode of “Succession,” which offered extra helpings of recrimination.Peter Kramer/HBO‘Succession’The Roys serve up the usual feast of familial animosity at their Thanksgiving bash. The patriarch Logan Roy (Brian Cox) is especially disruptive, culminating with his lashing out at an innocent child. In “I Went to Market,” from Season 1, party chat includes touchy but relatable topics such as political ideologies and movie selections, but business concerns naturally trump everything. Cousin Greg (Nicholas Braun) has to skip most of the festivities — it seems there are some sensitive documents at the office in need of shredding. (Streaming on Max.)‘black-ish’It’s always fun to watch Laurence Fishburne and Jenifer Lewis on “black-ish,” picking at each other as the divorced grandparents Pops and Ruby. The Season 3 Thanksgiving episode, “Auntsgiving,” threw a third veteran actor into the fray, casting Lorraine Toussaint (“Orange Is the New Black”) as Pops’s older sister, Aunt A.V. — whom Ruby hates. (Streaming on Hulu.)‘Gilmore Girls’Lorelai Gilmore (Lauren Graham) and her teenage daughter, Rory (Alexis Bledel), can barely boil water, but they do love to eat. In “A Deep-Fried Korean Thanksgiving,” from Season 3, they make cameos at no fewer than four different dinners. Rory’s friend Lane (Keiko Agena) offers a meal featuring Tofurky and a budding relationship. The perfectionist chef Sookie (Melissa McCarthy) watches in horror as her husband deep-fries a turkey. Romantic tensions for both mother and daughter are on the menu at the local diner. Lorelai’s parents serve up the usual stew of guilt and resentment. Just like Thanksgiving dinner itself, the episode is a plate piled high with sweet, salty and deliciously tart moments. (Streaming on Netflix.)‘Happy Endings’Midway through the third and final season of this zany hangout comedy, in an episode called “More Like Stanksgiving,” we finally learn how the crew’s resident married couple got together. It turns out that Jane (Eliza Coupe) and Brad (Damon Wayans Jr.) met when he and her friend Max (Adam Pally) were castmates on an unaired season of MTV’s “The Real World” in 2002. A decade later, Max still has the scrapped footage. In just over 20 minutes, the reliably lightning-paced “Happy Endings” pulls off a perfect reality-TV parody and sheds new light on a few longstanding relationships. (Streaming on Hulu.)“Big Mouth” used a turkey dispute to explore issues of generational trauma.Netflix‘Big Mouth’Nothing says love more warmly than a perfectly roasted turkey (or even tofurkey). Such is the lesson learned by Andrew (John Mulaney) in this Season 5 episode. Andrew’s father (Richard Kind) has anger-management issues related to prepping poultry — he believes insulting the bird is the key to keeping its juices inside. Andrew decries this “turkey tyranny” and refuses to eat. In the end, though, he and his father have a heart-to-heart about their troubled family history. Despite the usual gross-out humor, there is a genuine attempt to address issues of generational trauma — and of course the power of sharing food. (Streaming on Netflix.)‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’Many Thanksgiving episodes sprinkle in references to the holiday’s complicated history. “Buffy” takes the reckoning to an extreme in “Pangs,” from Season 4, in which the bumbling Xander (Nicholas Brendon) inadvertently unleashes the spirit of an Indigenous warrior. As the ghost starts murdering people who disrupted his sacred burial ground, the Slayer (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and her friends debate whether it’s right to kill a “vengeance demon” whose grievances are legitimate. The result is a reasonably nuanced debate about whether Americans are responsible for the sins of their ancestors. (Streaming on Hulu.)‘Gossip Girl’Forget, for a moment, the way “Gossip Girl” fell apart at the end. Its first season was a sublime confection sweetened with glamorous costumes and forbidden love, and tempered by heated conflict. All of those elements come together in the Thanksgiving episode, “Blair Waldorf Must Pie!,” which jumps back in time to compare the previous year’s festivities with those of the present. In the past, the beautiful and troubled Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively) got wasted before a dinner with the family of her best friend, Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester). A year later, Serena has cleaned up and Blair is struggling with bulimia. Although the girls are often framed as frenemies, this unusually sentimental episode is a tribute to the way they take care of each other. (Streaming on Max.)‘South Park’If a long weekend of family togetherness makes you desperate for a triple dose of irreverence, Season 17 of “South Park” has you covered. In a trilogy of episodes that begins with “Black Friday,” a local mall braces for the yearly blood bath that begins as soon as the plates are in the dishwasher. For Cartman, that means assembling an army of pint-size gamers to procure the new Xbox at a deep discount. When a pro-Playstation faction splinters off, South Park’s own “Game of Thrones” breaks out, complete with Kenny as Daenerys and a Red Robin Wedding. (Streaming on Max.)“How I Met Your Mother” turned Slapsgiving into one of TV’s abiding holiday traditions.Monty Brinton/CBS‘How I Met Your Mother’It is a holiday of firsts in “Slapsgiving,” the Thanksgiving episode from the third season of this beloved CBS sitcom. Lily (Alyson Hannigan) and Marshall (Jason Segel) are hosting their first Thanksgiving as a married couple. Ted (Josh Radnor) and Robin (Cobie Smulders) have just broken up and are figuring out how to be friends for the first time. This is the first of three Slapsgivings (the others are in Seasons 5 and 9), named for a bet in which Marshall wins the right to slap his obnoxious pal Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) that culminates in the glorious original song “You Just Got Slapped.” Be sure to read Entertainment Weekly’s oral history of the episode after watching. (Streaming on Hulu.)‘Family Ties’This quintessential 1980s family sitcom outdid itself with “No Nukes Is Good Nukes” from Season 1. As the Keaton kids endure their grandmother’s awful cooking, Elyse (Meredith Baxter) and Steven (Michael Gross) relive their hippie youth at a festive Thanksgiving Day nuclear disarmament protest. Of course, the boomer parents end up in jail and their Gen-X children couldn’t be more mortified. It’s a dated story line, but the episode’s message about standing up for your beliefs never gets old. (Streaming on Paramount+.)‘Adam Ruins Everything’Need some ammunition for semi-friendly arguments around the Thanksgiving table? This animated episode, called “The First Factsgiving,” helps dispel many of the beloved myths that have grown around the holiday, including the role of the Native warrior Tisquantum — commonly known as Squanto — in the original Thanksgiving feast in 1621. And about that date: The celebration of Thanksgiving as a fixed, nationwide holiday didn’t come about until the Civil War — a day of mourning for turkeys everywhere. (Streaming on Max.) More

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      Somewhat Guiltily, Ukrainians Miss Matthew Perry

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      Even as the war’s devastation rages on, Ukrainians have found space to mourn an actor who brought them comfort and laughter.It was the middle of the night in Ukraine, and Natalia Sosnytska couldn’t sleep. So she opened the Instagram app on her phone — and saw that the actor Matthew Perry had died.She broke down in tears, she said, then immediately felt embarrassed.“We need to remember those dying here in Ukraine daily, but maybe also those who inspire us,” she said, trying to come to terms with her layered emotions.She was hardly alone. Mr. Perry’s death last Saturday resonated with the many Ukrainians who had watched “Friends,” which was shown on broadcast television in the country and was popular especially with younger people.On the day that Mr. Perry’s death was reported by Ukraine’s mainstream news outlets and discussed on social media, the news in Ukraine was difficult, as usual: Russia had bombed the southern city of Kherson, and nine Ukrainian civilians, including children, had been found shot to death in the occupied town of Volnovakha. Yet Ukrainians found space in their hearts for sadness about the death of an actor who had touched their lives.“It is almost the same age as Ukrainian independence,” Maryna Synhaivska, the deputy director of the Ukrinform news agency, said of “Friends,” which began in 1994, three years after Ukraine split from the Soviet Union.“I was growing up with him, same as many Ukrainians,” Ms. Synhaivska said of Mr. Perry and Chandler Bing, his character on the show. “I am senselessly saddened by this news, and I can say that tens of thousands of people read it.”The series’ success in Ukraine was partly down to the high quality of its translation. It was dubbed into Ukrainian rather than Russian, and linguists have highlighted how well its American slang was rendered. Ukrainian viewers were also able to watch each new episode almost at the same time as viewers in the United States.Ms. Sosnytska, who is 32, named a community center that she opened in 2017 for young people in her hometown, Kostiantynivka, in eastern Ukraine, after the show.The space was intended to be a place where like-minded people could get together and have fun, but they struggled to settle on a name they all liked. She had watched every season of “Friends” no less than 10 times, she said, and her friends liked it, too. So they called the center Druzi — “friends” in Ukrainian — and the sign on the building mimicked the show’s title font.The community center Druzi before the full scale invasion in Kostiantynivka, Donetsk region, Ukraine.via Natalia SosnytskaThese days, the city is near the front line, where life is highly dangerous, and the community center sits empty, surrounded by bomb craters.Ms. Sosnytska said that when she heard the news of Mr. Perry’s death, “I understood that I just need to watch one more time.”The series has been a source of solace for some Ukrainian fans during the many months of war.Anastasiya Nigmatulina, 28, a beautician in Vinnytsia, a city in central Ukraine, said she had watched the show over and over since the war started. “It helps me to feel better,” she said.Her husband is a soldier, and she worries about him often. He is home on leave now with her and their 5-year-old daughter, but will return to the front soon. There were many times when Ms. Nigmatulina “felt scared and stressed, but this series supported me,” she said.“And particularly Chandler Bing, played by Matthew Perry,” she added. “I feel like I lost a close friend.”“Friends” also helped some in the country learn Ukrainian, just as it has aided people around the world in learning English.“I talk and hear how I am using the words from specific episodes, from that brilliant Ukrainian translation we had,” said Yulia Po, 38, a Crimea native who grew up in a Russian-speaking environment and said she had learned Ukrainian thanks to “Friends.”As a 13-year-old coming home after school, she recalled, she would have just enough time to fry herself potatoes and get comfortable with a plate in front of the television before the show aired.She left Crimea after Russia occupied it in 2014, now refuses to speak Russian on principle, and has not been home or seen her parents since leaving, she said. “So I have a lot of emotions for this show,” Ms. Po said, adding, “Back then, when I escaped Crimea, I was depressed and I watched it and watched it, and it helped.”Last weekend, when she learned that Mr. Perry had died, she felt a slight sadness.“This is just a humane emotion to feel sad — there is always a space for it,” Ms. Po said. “He was with me for a long time and gave me many reasons to laugh.” More

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      Matthew Perry’s Most Memorable TV Shows and Movies to Stream Now

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      Perry will always be remembered as Chandler Bing. But he had a long and varied career that included films and many other series.Matthew Perry, who died Saturday at 54, was one of the biggest TV stars of the past three decades thanks to his role on “Friends,” the blockbuster NBC sitcom that continues to be enormously popular in the streaming era.The show looms so large and Perry’s performance as Chandler Bing was so indelible that it can be difficult to think of him in any other context. But Perry had a long and varied career that included films, many other series and the occasional play. Here are some of his most memorable performances and how to watch them.‘Friends’(1994-2004)Raised largely in Canada, Perry moved to Los Angeles as a teen. He found early success as an actor, appearing in some of the 1980s’ most popular sitcoms (“Charles in Charge,” “Silver Spoons,” “Growing Pains”) and dramas (“Highway to Heaven,” “Beverly Hills, 90210”). But his life changed forever when he was cast, at 24, as one-sixth of what would soon be TV’s most famous group of attractive young Manhattanites.As Chandler, Perry was the sharpest, funniest Friend. His instantly memorable quips and cadences were endlessly imitated by fans and sometimes co-stars. (Each of the Friends had a “Could I be any more …” punchline at some point.) Perry’s well-known struggles with addiction are unavoidably linked to his time on the show — for instance, he said he went to rehab right after filming Monica and Chandler’s wedding. But his performance remains mostly hilarious.Stream it on Max.‘Fools Rush In’(1997)The “Friends” stars all tried to make the jump to the big screen, with mixed results. Perry’s first big movie role was as the lead of “Fools Rush In,” a romantic comedy in which he plays a New York developer forced into a shotgun wedding with a photographer played by Salma Hayek. The New York Times called it a “lackluster comedy” but other critics, including Roger Ebert, saw some sweetness beneath the one-liners.Stream it on Amazon; YouTube; and Tubi.Perry with Michael Clarke Duncan in “The Whole Nine Yards.”Pierre Vinet/Warner Bros., via Associated Press‘The Whole Nine Yards’(2000)Perry leans into his nebbishy side in “The Whole Nine Yards,” a crime caper in which he plays a put-upon dentist who becomes entangled with an ex-gangster. The tough guy is played by Bruce Willis, part of a deep cast that also includes Amanda Peet, Rosanna Arquette, Michael Clarke Duncan and Kevin Pollak.Reviews were middling when it was released — The Times called it “underwhelming, amusing only in fits and starts” — but the cast keeps things light and entertaining and the film’s reputation has improved over time. (You can give the sequel, “The Whole Ten Yards,” of course, a pass though.)Rent it on Amazon; Google Play; and YouTube.‘Go On’(2012-13)During and after “Friends,” Perry guest-starred in acclaimed series including “The West Wing,” “Scrubs,” “The Good Wife” and “Cougar Town.” His post-“Friends” starring vehicles were more of a mixed bag, including the Aaron Sorkin misfire “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” and “Mr. Sunshine,” which Perry also created.The best was “Go On,” an NBC sitcom starring Perry as a freshly widowed sports-talk host who goes to group grief therapy. Created by the former “Friends” writer and producer Scott Silveri, it’s funnier than it sounds.Buy it on Amazon.Thomas Lennon and Matthew Perry in CBS’s remake of “The Odd Couple.”Sonja Flemming‘The Odd Couple’(2015-17)Perry teamed with Thomas Lennon for a remake of one of the most famous sitcoms in history, which seems like a bad idea until you consider that the original was itself an adaptation of the 1968 film (which was based on the 1965 Neil Simon play).As the rumpled, irritable Oscar Madison, Perry plays yet another sports-talk host, with Lennon as the finicky Felix Unger. A slightly naughtier update of the old formula, it worked well enough to last for three seasons on CBS, making it one of Perry’s longest TV runs after “Friends.”Stream it on Paramount+. More

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      Matthew Perry, ‘Friends’ Star, Dies at 54

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      He was known for playing the sarcastic but lovable Chandler Bing and for his struggles with drugs and alcohol, which he chronicled in a memoir.Matthew Perry, who gained sitcom superstardom as Chandler Bing on the show “Friends,” becoming a model of the ability to tease your pals as an expression of love, has died. He was 54.The death was confirmed by Capt. Scot Williams of the Los Angeles Police Department’s robbery-homicide division. He said the cause was not likely to be determined for some time, but there was no indication of foul play.Several news outlets reported, without a named source, that Mr. Perry was found unresponsive in a hot tub at his home in Los Angeles. He had publicly struggled with drinking and drug use for decades, leading to hospitalizations for a range of ailments. By his own account, he had spent more than half his life in treatment and rehab facilities.“Friends” ran for 10 seasons from 1994 to 2004. It chronicled the never-too-dramatic dramas and in-jokes and exploits of a group of six young friends living in New York City. Chandler was the yuppie of the group, with a well-paying white-collar job his friends did not entirely understand. He wore sweater vests but also moodily smoked cigarettes.Other “Friends” characters generated humor through their goofiness or haplessness; Chandler cracked jokes. He was often inspired by the airheadedness of his roommate and best friend, Joey Tribbiani (Matt LeBlanc), a struggling actor, and by the blunders of another buddy, Ross Geller (David Schwimmer), a paleontologist more competent in science than everyday life.During one episode, for example, Ross joined the group looking bizarrely tan and said he had gone to a tanning place that one of them had suggested. “Was that place the sun?” Chandler asked.The cast of “Friends” in the 1990s. Clockwise from bottom left, Courteney Cox as Monica Geller; Matt LeBlanc as Joey Tribbiani; Lisa Kudrow as Phoebe Buffay; David Schwimmer as Ross Geller; Matthew Perry as Chandler Bing; and Jennifer Aniston as Rachel Green.NBCUniversal via Getty ImagesThat speech pattern — the sarcastic rhetorical question asked in a tone of mock disbelief — was typical of Chandler. He was known on the show for wondering things like “Could she be more out of my league?”Mr. Perry himself brought this bit to the show, and it became a familiar way for Americans to talk — proof of the status of “Friends” as one of the most popular shows in sitcom history.For a while Chandler was in a secret romance with another core member of the “Friends” group, Monica Geller (Courteney Cox), a chef. Ultimately, the two achieve happily stable monogamy, marry and move to the suburbs. (In the spirit of the show, distilled into its theme song, “I’ll Be There for You,” Chandler’s new home has a “Joey room” for his old roommate.) Their steps toward adulthood helped bring an end to the group’s post-adolescent idyll and, with that, the story of “Friends” itself.Mr. Perry, like his co-stars, eventually earned $1 million per episode. He was rich, famous and handsome. But behind the scenes of “Friends,” his substance abuse was already an issue.In his 2022 memoir, “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing,” Mr. Perry recalled Jennifer Aniston, who starred in the show as Rachel Green, coming to his trailer one day and saying, “in a kind of weird but loving way,” that it was clear he had been drinking too much. “We can smell it,” she added.“The plural ‘we,’” he wrote about that moment, “hits me like a sledgehammer.”The whole cast confronted him at one point in his dressing room.A Jet Ski accident in 1997 helped set in motion Mr. Perry’s addiction to pain killers. A year and a half later, he was taking 55 pills a day. He checked into a rehab facility weighing 128 pounds. “Of course, ‘Matthew Perry is in rehab’ became a huge news story,” he wrote.Mr. Perry testified before a House subcommittee in Washington in 2013 in support of federal funding for drug treatment programs, including those for military veterans. His own struggles with addiction were well known. Paul Morigi/Associated Press for the National Association of Drug Court ProfessionalsIn the years to come, his addiction would lead to a “medical odyssey,” The New York Times wrote in a profile last year, including an exploded colon, a stint on life support, two weeks in a coma, nine months with a colostomy bag and more than a dozen stomach surgeries, among other travails.Lisa Kudrow, who played Phoebe Buffay on “Friends,” wrote in her foreword to Mr. Perry’s memoir that the single question she was asked most about “Friends” was “How’s Matthew Perry doing?”Matthew Langford Perry was born on Aug. 19, 1969, in Williamstown, Mass. His mother, Suzanne (Langford) Perry, worked as a press secretary for the Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau. His father, John Bennett Perry, was a character actor.His parents divorced when he was a baby, and Matty grew up largely with his mother and stepfather, Keith Morrison, in Ottawa. He was one of Canada’s top-ranked junior tennis players.When he was 15, he moved in with his father in Los Angeles, hoping to devote more time to tennis and leave behind unhappiness he felt about his place in his mother’s second family.After a couple of years in Los Angeles, Matthew decided that he had figured out what would make him happy.“Fame would change everything, and I yearned for it more than any other person on the face of the planet,” he wrote in his memoir. “I needed it. It was the only thing that would fix me. I was certain of it.”Mr. Perry in about 1988. “Fame would change everything, and I yearned for it more than any other person on the face of the planet,” he wrote in his memoir.Michael Ochs Archives/Getty ImagesIn 1988, still a teenager, he made his film debut, starring alongside River Phoenix in “A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon.” He appeared on several sitcoms. It was clear that he was an up-and-coming actor — but he remained that way for several years. One day, when he was 24, alone in his small Los Angeles apartment, he got on his knees and prayed to become famous, no matter what else would happen to him in the process.Three weeks later, he was cast in “Friends.”Early on, Courteney Cox, whose career to that point had outpaced her fellow cast members’, announced to the group, “There are no stars here,” Mr. Perry recalled in his memoir. “This is an ensemble show. We’re all supposed to be friends.”Mr. Perry continued: “So we did what she suggested. From that first morning we were inseparable. We ate every meal together.”During his years on “Friends,” Mr. Perry starred in a number of movies that flopped commercially, like “Almost Heroes” (1998), with Chris Farley, and “Three to Tango” (1999). He got good reviews for his supporting role as a likable, beleaguered dentist in “The Whole Nine Yards” (2000), starring Bruce Willis.After “Friends,” Mr. Perry starred in a few more TV shows, like “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” (2006-07), written by Aaron Sorkin, and an adaptation of Neil Simon’s play “The Odd Couple” that ran on CBS from 2015 to 2017.In his memoir, Mr. Perry poignantly described struggles with self-esteem and commitment through several romantic relationships, including some with prominent actresses, like Julia Roberts. He never married or had children.He had several half siblings from his parents’ remarriages. Information about his survivors was not immediately available.Since “Friends” went off the air, its fan base has only grown. The show has even helped people around the world learn English.Two years ago, Mr. Perry, by his own account newly sober, appeared in a televised reunion of the “Friends” cast, in which its stars revisited some of the show’s most famous sets, like the Central Perk coffee shop, to reminisce about old episodes.That came after years in which Mr. Perry resisted talking about “Friends.” He wrote in his memoir that he admired Kurt Cobain’s refusal to play “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” a hit for Mr. Cobain’s group, Nirvana, and Led Zeppelin’s aversion to their anthem “Stairway to Heaven.”He did gain a new attitude toward publicly recalling his past thanks to writing, he told The Times last year. In a single interview, he spoke again and again about the idea that his confessional stories might help fellow addicts.“Whenever I bumped into something that I didn’t really want to share,” he said, “I would think of the people that I would be helping, and it would keep me going.”Elisabeth Egan More

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      Mourning Matthew Perry at the ‘Friends’ Museum in New York

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      The day after the actor’s death, fans paid tribute at a storefront re-creation of the sitcom’s famous sets.Every night, Marnie Stein, an elementary school principal from Montreal, falls asleep to the lullaby of “Friends” streaming on her TV.At school, the decorations in the teachers’ lounge reference Central Perk, the Manhattan coffee shop where the show’s main characters held court. “All we do is quote ‘Friends,’” Stein said of her and her colleagues.So on Sunday afternoon, while on a trip to New York City with her daughter and best friend, Stein took a pilgrimage to a storefront at East 23rd Street and Lexington Avenue, where sets from the long-running sitcom have been recreated for fans in a two-floor tourist magnet that is part museum, part photo opportunity.After the news on Saturday night that Matthew Perry, one of the show’s lead actors, had died suddenly at his home in Los Angeles, the trip to the “Friends” Experience turned into a moment to pay tribute to the 54-year-old star, who had been open about his long battle with drug and alcohol addiction. No official cause of death has been released yet.“He was in pain and he had so many demons and he suffered for so long,” Stein said as “Friends” clips flashed on a screen behind her. “As I’m trying to come to terms with it, I hope he’s at peace.”Stein, 49, watched “Friends” from its early days, when it premiered on NBC in the mid-1990s and quickly became a pop culture touchstone, with its portrait of a close-knit group of 20-somethings navigating friendship and relationships. The show has maintained its cultural cachet into the streaming era, producing a legion of Gen Z fans who are just as eager to take a photograph alongside a recreation of the “Friends” fountain as their parents’ generation is. (Stein’s 22-year-old daughter, Maggie, is a fan, too.)A sardonic jokester with a mysterious job and a sometimes painful awkwardness when flirting, Perry’s character, Chandler Bing, was a central pillar of the show during its 10-season run, and his relationship with Courteney Cox’s character, Monica Geller, is one of the most beloved romantic arcs in TV history.A re-creation of the “Friends” Central Perk coffeehouse.Jeenah Moon for The New York TimesOutfits worn by the cast of “Friends.”Jeenah Moon for The New York TimesIn his recent memoir, in which he chronicled his road toward sobriety, Perry described the show as a “safe place” and a “touchstone of calm” for him. “It had given me a reason to get out of bed every morning,” he wrote.He also described the character as deeply personal to him. Chandler’s trademark way of talking — “Could she be more out of my league?” and “Could I be more sorry?” — came from a speech pattern he and his brothers took on in grade school.“From the day we first heard him embody the role of Chandler Bing, there was no one else for us,” the show’s creators, Marta Kauffman and David Crane, and an executive producer, Kevin Bright, said in a statement on Sunday.There was a sense of shock among fans, who had seen the cast together as recently as 2021 when they got together for a much anticipated reunion special. To those who have watched and rewatched the 10 seasons, often streaming them in the background of daily life, the actors have become reliable companions.“You know when you get that kind of sinking feeling?” said Olivia Freer, 28, a tourist from England who had bought tickets to the museum with her friends after learning the news. “I feel heartbroken. You don’t know them so you don’t think it’ll affect you, but it does.”The broad and enduring loyalty to the show has fueled enough demand for “Friends” pop-up shrines not just in New York, where the show is set, but in Miami and Salt Lake City, as well as around the world in Melbourne, Dublin and Amsterdam. Like many so-called immersive experiences, the event revolves around getting photos in the show’s trademark settings, including the orange couch at Central Perk and the blue cabinetry of Monica’s kitchen.Fans can recline in a La-Z-Boy chair like the ones Chandler and his pal Joey were known to sit in, and pose as though trying to finagle a sofa up a staircase, as Chandler did with Rachel and Ross in Season 5. Glass cases display props and costumes from the series, including Chandler and Monica’s wedding invitation and vows, as well as the outfit Chandler wore in a Thanksgiving episode in Season 8 in which Brad Pitt guest starred.So what is it about this show that turns props into precious memorabilia and faraway actors into what start to feel like cherished companions?For Amy Taylor, who was traveling with Stein, it’s the sense of comfort and ease that episodes of “Friends” give her — it was a balm for her during the pandemic in particular, she said. And it’s the common language it provides her and her loved ones. (In a reference to a running joke in the series, Taylor has a chick tattooed on her leg, and her cousin has a duck tattoo.)“I just hope he knew,” Taylor said of Perry, “that his character brought so much comfort to people.” More

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      Matthew Perry Made It Look Easy

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      Even as he struggled with drug and alcohol addiction, the “Friends” star Matthew Perry, who died at the age of 54, made it all look easy.A confession: When I received a news alert that the actor Matthew Perry had died, my mind adopted the particular cadence that Perry perfected as Chandler Bing, the character he played for 10 seasons on the NBC sitcom “Friends.” Here is what I thought, “Could this be any sadder?”Perry, 54, died nearly a year after the publication of “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing,” an unusually candid memoir of addiction and recovery. As he detailed in that book, he spent many of the best years of his career oblivious, avoidant, numb — conditions that don’t typically encourage great acting. But he was great. And it had seemed reasonable, if rose-colored, to hope that sobriety might make him better, returning him to the nervy, instinctive brilliance of his peak years. That hope is now foreclosed.A professional actor since his teens, Perry had appeared in more than a dozen sitcoms before landing “Friends” in 1994. I first remember seeing him years earlier, on an episode of “Growing Pains” screened by my school during a special assembly meant to advertise the dangers of drunken driving. Mostly it advertised Perry and his anxious, reckless charm.To say that he never did anything quite as good as “Friends,” before or after, is not to diminish his achievement. Even among the irrepressible talents of his co-stars, Perry stood out, for a rubbery, heedless way with physical comedy and a split-second timing that most stopwatches would envy. If you have seen more than a few episodes of the show — and many, many millions have, including fans born years after its initial airing — you will have absorbed Chandler’s rhythms, his catchphrases, the way Perry’s handsome, moony face would stretch like spandex, the better to sell a reaction. He had both an absolute commitment to what a line required and a way of gently ironizing that line. His character was the butt of jokes. Perry was in on those same jokes. There was a boyishness to him that seemed to excuse his characters’ worst behavior, on “Friends” and in subsequent roles.Those roles never served him as well and the shows he attached himself to rarely survived to a second season. His co-stars found other movies and series to showcase their talents. Perry’s latter projects, despite fine work on “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” and “The Good Wife,” were largely grim, forgettable. It can be hard for boys to grow up.The cast of “Friends.” From left, David Schwimmer, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matthew Perry, Lisa Kudrow and Matt LeBlanc.Via Getty Images Warner Bros. Television/Hulton Archive, via Getty ImagesIt seems to have been hard for Perry. “I wanted to be famous so badly,” he told The New York Times in 2002. “You want the attention, you want the bucks, and you want the best seat in the restaurant. I didn’t think what the repercussions would be.” Those repercussions included the enabling of his addictions and the loss of any anonymity. (It had the occasional upside, too. In his memoir, he wrote that after a reaction to an anesthetic stopped his heart, a worker in the hospital in Switzerland performed CPR for five full minutes to restore rhythm. “If I hadn’t been on ‘Friends,’ would he have stopped at three minutes?” he wondered, darkly.)His struggles were an open secret, then they weren’t even a secret. (He was speaking openly, if optimistically, as early as 2002.) And it’s a miracle, really, that he could perform as he did, in and out of rehab, even as various cast members confronted him about his alcohol use. He seems to have fictionalized some aspects of this in “The End of Longing,” a play he wrote and starred in. While the Times critic was cool on the drama, he wrote that Perry was “genuinely scary as a jalopy of a man running on ethanol.”Speaking to The Times last year, Perry treated his hard-won sobriety as serious and tenuous. “It’s still a day-to-day process of getting better,” he said. “Every day.” Onscreen he could disguise that struggle. This was the genius of “Friends” and the genius of Perry, to make it all look easy. “Friends” was always a fantasy, a whitewashed vision of urban life, in which the characters had apartments with the approximate footprint of palazzos and infinite leisure time. (What was Chandler’s job anyway? Why did he so rarely go there?) But to watch it, as I did late Saturday night, for hours, was to relax into the confidence of its comedy, of Perry’s excitable charm. Onscreen, in that fountain, in some horrible, short-sleeved cardigan, he is there for us, still. More

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      Matthew Perry Is Mourned by Friends and Colleagues

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      Fans and celebrities paid tribute to Perry, who died at age 54 on Saturday.Celebrities, actors and entertainment and political leaders shared tributes to Matthew Perry, who starred on the hit television series “Friends” and died on Saturday at the age of 54.His death was confirmed by Capt. Scot Williams of the Los Angeles Police Department’s robbery-homicide division. Although there was no immediate cause of death, there was no indication of foul play.On social media on Sunday, Perry’s fans and colleagues celebrated the actor, who played the sardonic Chandler Bing on more than 200 episodes of the NBC sitcom “Friends,” which followed a group of young professionals living in Manhattan.On the show, Perry starred with Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc and Lisa Kudrow.Fans and colleagues remembered Perry for his acting talent and kindness.The show’s Facebook page said: “He was a true gift to us all. Our heart goes out to his family, loved ones, and all of his fans.”NBC, which aired “Friends” from 1994 to 2004, said on Facebook that Perry “brought so much joy to hundreds of millions of people around the world with his pitch perfect comedic timing and wry wit.”The network added, “His legacy will live on through countless generations.”“Saturday Night Live” featured a black-and-white tribute card of Perry at the end of this weekend’s broadcast. He hosted the show in 1997.Morgan Fairchild, who played Chandler Bing’s mother on “Friends,” wrote on social media that she was “heartbroken about the untimely death of my ‘son’, Matthew Perry.”“The loss of such a brilliant young actor is a shock,” she said.Cast members of “Friends.” From left to right: David Schwimmer as Ross Geller, Jennifer Aniston as Rachel Green, Courteney Cox as Monica Geller, Perry as Chandler Bing, Lisa Kudrow as Phoebe Buffay and Matt LeBlanc as Joey Tribbiani.Warner Bros. Television, via Getty ImagesMaggie Wheeler, who portrayed Chandler’s on-again, off-again girlfriend Janice and who had a memorable laugh on “Friends,” posted a photo of herself with Perry on Instagram.“What a loss,” she wrote. “The world will miss you.” Wheeler added: “The joy you brought to so many in your too short lifetime will live on.”Perry, who grew up in Ottawa, was also mourned by Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, who was a childhood friend.“Matthew Perry’s passing is shocking and saddening,” Trudeau said. “I’ll never forget the schoolyard games we used to play, and I know people around the world are never going to forget the joy he brought them.”The Ottawa Senators hockey organization also paid tribute to Perry, writing, “Saddened to learn about the passing of Matthew Perry, one of Ottawa’s proudest sons and 𝑡ℎ𝑒 biggest hockey fan.” The post included a clip of Perry attending a game.The actress Selma Blair, who appeared in an episode of “Friends,” posted a photo of herself with Perry on Instagram. She described him as “my oldest boy friend.”She added: “All of us loved Matthew Perry, and I did especially. Every day. I loved him unconditionally. And he me. And I’m broken. Broken hearted. Sweet dreams Matty. Sweet dreams.”In an Instagram story, the actress Rumer Willis recalled hanging around Perry and her father, Bruce Willis, when they worked on movies together, including the 2000 film “The Whole Nine Yards.”She said that Perry “was so kind and funny and sweet with my sisters and me and I think his physical Comedy and that movie still makes me laugh so much.”“I know he had many challenges in his life and brought a lot of joy to people with his comedy,” Willis continued, adding, “I hope he can rest peacefully.” More