PROFESSION: ACTOR, COMEDIAN, SCREENWRITER, DIRECTOR, PRODUCER

We all have enjoyed the delightful, soft comedy of the fictional character Chandler Muriel Bing, in NBC television sitcom “Friends”.  The humorous character gave numerous gigglebellies. The cheerful character of Chandler was played by an accomplished actor Matthew Langford Perry. He is an American-Canadian actor and comedian. He was born on August 19, 1969, in Williamstown, Massachusetts, USA.

Net Worth

The approximated net worth of Matthew Perry is $70 million. He earns $150,000 per episode. Handsome leading man Matthew Perry has managed to translate the fame and popularity he garnered from playing Chandler Bing in Friends into an increasingly successful film career as a romantic comedy lead.

Early Life

Actor and screenwriter Perry was raised by his mother in Ottawa, Ontario, and was enrolled at Rockcliffe Park Public School and Ashbury College. While growing up, he took a keen interest in tennis and became a top ranked junior player. His mother, Suzanne Marie, is a Canadian journalist and former press secretary to Canadian Prime Minister. His father, John Bennett Perry, is an American actor and former model. His parents divorced before his first birthday.

After moving to Los Angeles at the age of 15 to live with his father, he became more interested in acting. In addition to performing in several high school stage productions, he remained an avid tennis player. Perry ranked 17^th nationally in the junior singles category and third in the doubles category. Upon graduating from high school, Perry intended to enroll at the University of Southern California. Perry also pursued improve comedy at the LA Connection in Sherman Oaks while still in high school, quickly becoming a featured performer.

Breaking into Acting           

Perry got his first film part while still in high school. In “A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon” (1988), he played a supporting role. In September 1987, Perry starred in his first sitcom “Second Chance”. The show was later retooled, dropping Martin and focusing on the teenage misadventures of Perry’s character. Despite its new direction and new title, “Boys Will Be Boys”, the sitcom failed to attract enough audience.

In the midst of his many continuing guest roles on television, Perry was cast as a regular on the 1990 CBS sitcom “Sydney”.  Perry landed his next starring role on the ABC sitcom “Home Free”. After a few months, the series was called off. Perry was cast in a pilot called LAX 2194, which was a futuristic look at an airport. It never aired though. But soon Perry won a leading role in a new sitcom about a group of young men and women in New York City.

Friends Stardom

Debuting in September 1994, “Friends” became one of the most prominent television sitcoms of all the time. Perry played the witty and sarcastic Chandler Bing. The program was a huge success and Perry, along with his co-satrs, gained wide renown among television viewers. The program also earned him “Emmy” nominations in 2002 for “Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series” along with Matt Le Blanc. His co-stars were: Matt LeBlanc (Joey Tribbiani), David Schwimmer (Ross), Courteney Cox (Monica), Jennifer Aniston (Rachel) and Lisa Kudrow (Phoebe). The six actors proved to be a tight group both on-and-off screens.

During his years in Friends, perry simultaneously, tackled several film projects. He starred in several comedies, including “Fools Rush In (1997)”, “Almost Heroes (1998)” and “Three to Tango (1999).”

Perry found some commercial success with “The Whole Nine Yards (2000)” that earned $57 million and spawning the sequel “The Whole Ten Yards”.

Though Perry’s film career had reached the heights, but his series remained one of the top shows on American television. During the later season of the ‘Friends’, Chandler Bing developed a romantic relationship with Monica. The characters eventually get married, adopt twins and plans to move to the suburbs as the series come to an end in May 2004, after a decade on air.

Post “Friends” career                

After completing the most famous “Friends” series, Perry took on a range of roles. Perry also made his directional debut in an episode of the 4^th season of the American comedy-drama “Scrubs”. He starred in the TNT movie, “The Ron Clark Story”, which premiered August 13, 2006. Perry received Golden Globe nomination as well as Emmy nomination for his performance. That same year, Perry returned to series television for Aaron Sorkin’s behind the scenes drama “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip”. Later on, he appeared in movies like “Numb”, “Sexual Perversity in Chicago”, “17 Again”, “Birds of America”.

In 2010, Perry’s new comedy pilot, “Mr. Sunshine”, based on Perry’s original idea, was brought by ABC.

On March2012, it was reported that Perry had signed on to star on the NBC comedy pilot “Go On”, written and produced by former “Friends” writer/producer Scott Silveri. The project was picked up to series in May 2012. The pilot aired on August 2012. The series was cancelled by NBC in May 2013, shortly after the conclusion of its first series.

 Personal Life

During the run of the show “Friends”, Perry encountered personal challenges. He battled addictions to alcohol and prescription medications. He has had to attend rehabs to treat his addictions. His weight fluctuated drastically and once dropped to 66 kg.

Perry holds dual American-Canadian citizenship.

Relationship

Perry has reportedly dated Julia Roberts, Yasmine Bleeth and Lauren Graham. He dated actress Lizzy Caplan from 2006 to 2012.

Charity Work, Events and Causes

Perry helped design and signed a pair of shoes for the Stuart Weitzman shoe auction benefiting ovarian awareness and research

Matthew Perry has supported the following charities

Clothes off Our Back

Feeding America

Lili Claire Foundation

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NET WORTH: $60 Million

PROFESSION: Televison Actor

Matt LeBlanc was born on July 25 1967 in Newton, Massachussetts. His mother, Patricia, is from Italian origin, and worked as an office manager, and his father, Paul LeBlanc, who had a French-Canadian background, was a mechanic. He was raised and schooled in Massachusetts. He went onto college there but dropped out before completion opting to pursue a modelling job in Florida. One of his jobs involved posing for a gay travel guide. After working as a photo model in Florida for sometime, he moved to New York where he took drama classes.

He did television commercials while he was training as an actor in New York.  At one time he was known as the king of the commercials. As well as a 1987 Heinz ketchup commercial that won top prize at Cannes, he appeared in slots for Levi’s 501 jeans, Doritos and Coca-Cola. After he did a few small roles on stage and TV, he became very popular for his role ‘Joey Tribiaani’ in F.R.I.E.N.D.S.

Career

His first TV role was on the drama TV 101, in 1988. In the early nighties, LeBlanc started appearing in music videos. Some of these music videos included Jon Bon Jovi’s “Miracle”, Alanis Morisette’s “Walk Away”, Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers’ “Into the great wide open” and Bob Seger’s “Night moves”. In 1991, he also starred in a spin-off series of Married.. with Children which was called Top of The Heap. 

In 1994, he started playing ‘Joey’ on F.R.I.E.N.D.S. and went on to play that character for a little more than a decade. His portrayal of ‘The One who is Big-hearted, Simple-minded, Womanizing, In and Out of Work Actor who has an Eating Disorder’ endeared him to viewers. His lack of understanding of any given situation, and of virtually any sentence (that didn’t involve sex) gave him the majority of punch-lines in every show. He found huge success in the role and gained wide recognition.

Matt has also guest starred on a show called Just Ten of Us (1988). His F.R.I.E.N.D.S. co-star Matthew Perry has also made a guest appearance on the show, although not in the same episode.

He starred in a feature film called Lookin’ Italian, in 1994. Some of his other films around that time are Ed (1996), Lost in Space (1998),  Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle (2000) and All the Queen’s Men (2001).

In 2001, he did another music videos for Jon Bon Jovi which was “Say It Isn’t So.” After the immense popularity of his F.R.I.E.N.D.S.’s character ‘Joey Tribiani’, the creators of the show did a spin-off series with him called Joey which went on for two seasons (2004-2006). Gone were LeBlanc’s days of earning a million dollars an episode. But the irony was, as the series slipped in popularity, the character of ‘Joey’ gained more successful roles.

LeBlanc has since found a successful show Episodes. It is a comedy show, which started in 2011, and had LeBlanc playing himself. It is about a British TV show being remade into a US one starring Matt LeBlanc in the lead. The show is written by F.R.I.E.N.D.S co-creator David Crane. It returned for a second series in May 2012.

Personal Life

LeBlanc married model Melissa McKnight in May 2003. They met through Melissa’s friend Kelly Philips; wife of actor Lou Diamond Philips, in 1997. LeBlanc got engaged to Melissa McKnight in November 1998. They gave birth to a daughter, Marina, in 2004.  She suffered seizures at the age of eight months and was diagnosed with a rare brain disorder. LeBlanc filed for divorce in March 2006, mentioning irreconcilable differences. Despite the couple’s divorce, the pair continue to jointly care for their daughter.

Matt LeBlanc is seeing his Joey co-star Andrea Anders since.

Fun Trivia

LeBlanc is fluent in French.

He has three dogs named Lady, Shadow and Jay.

He is trained as a carpenter.

He is the only cast member of F.R.I.E.N.D.S. not to have appeared on the show Saturday Night Live.

His role of “Maj. Don West” in Lost in Space (1998) was originally offered to his F.R.I.E.N.D.S. co-star Matthew Perry.

He is a motorcycle enthusiast and hosted his own TV Show The 5 Coolest Things (2003). The show was based on the 5 coolest things in each motorcycle speciality.

LeBlanc scored the fastest lap on Top Gear for the ‘Star In A Reasonably Priced Car driving’ the Kia Cee’d at 1:42.1 beating Rowan Atkinson and Michael Fassbender.

Awards and Accolades

He won the Screen Actors Guild Award in 1995 for “Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series”.

In 2002, he won the Teen Choice Award for “TV Choice Actor” for his work in  F.R.I.E.N.D.S..

For the spin off series Joey, he won the People’s Choice Award for “Favorite Male Television Star” in 2005.

The most recent award that he won was in 2012. He won a Golden Globe Award for “Best Actor- Televison Series Musical or Comedy” for his work in Episodes.

Quotes

On F.R.I.E.N.D.S. coming to an end: ”On I had quit smoking for four years, and in that final two weeks I started again because we were so aware that our time together was coming to an end. We would steal away these little moments. ‘Hey, let’s go hang out. Let’s go sit in my room’. It was really… a lot of Kleenex.”

“It’s funny – nowadays people that are famous get chased by paparazzi. They have this fame, but they don’t have the money to hide from it.”

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