David Schwimmer honored Matthew Perry‘s legacy in an emotional tribute following his death.
“Matty, Thank you for ten incredible years of laughter and creativity. I will never forget your impeccable comic timing and delivery. You could take a straight line of dialogue and bend it to your will, resulting in something so entirely original and unexpectedly funny it still astonishes,” Schwimmer, 57, captioned an Instagram post on Wednesday, November 15, alongside a photo of him and Perry from the Friends set.
Schwimmer reminisced on his former costar’s “heart,” adding, “Which you were generous with, and shared with us, so we could create a family out of six strangers. This photo is from one of my favorite moments with you. Now it makes me smile and grieve at the same time.”
He concluded: “I imagine you up there, somewhere, in the same white suit, hands in your pockets, looking around — ‘Could there BE any more clouds?’”
Schwimmer’s post comes two weeks after Perry’s death at age 54. The Los Angeles coroner’s office confirmed on October 31 that Perry died after an apparent drowning. Police responded to a call of someone in cardiac arrest at a Los Angeles home, where they found Perry unconscious in a hot tub. While an initial autopsy was completed, the actor’s cause of death was “deferred” pending a toxicology report.
Perry rose to stardom playing Chandler Bing on Friends from 1994 to 2004. He developed a close friendship with his costars Schwimmer, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow and Matt LeBlanc, which lasted long after the sitcom came to an end.
Shortly after news of Perry’s death broke, the former costars released a joint statement.
“We are all so utterly devastated by the loss of Matthew. We were more than just cast mates. We are a family,” the group said on October 30. “There is so much to say, but right now we’re going to take a moment to grieve and process this unfathomable loss. In time we will say more, as and when we are able. For now, our thoughts and our love are with Matty’s family, his friends, and everyone who loved him around the world.”
The group has since taken to their respective social media accounts to share their love for Perry. On Wednesday, Aniston, 54, shared her own post, which included a text exchange between her and Perry before his passing.
“Making you laugh just made my day. It made my day :),” Perry texted Aniston, alongside a photo of them together. She replied, “Awww the first of THOUSANDS of times … ”
Aniston noted in the heartbreaking caption that she was still grieving the loss, adding, “Oh boy this one has cut deep. Having to say goodbye to our Matty has been an insane wave of emotions that I’ve never experienced before. We all experience loss at some point in our lives. Loss of life or loss of love. Being able to really SIT in this grief allows you to feel the moments of joy and gratitude for having loved someone that deep. And we loved him deeply. He was such a part of our DNA. We were always the 6 of us. This was a chosen family that forever changed the course of who we were and what our path was going to be.”
