New Delhi: Matthew Perry, best known for playing Chandler Bing on 'Friends', passed away on Saturday at his Los Angeles home, leaving fans across the world shocked by his sudden demise. Many celebrities paid their tribute to the actor on social media platforms. Actor Gwyneth Paltrow, who briefly dated Matthew in 1993, remembered the actor fondly.
Paltrow shared a picture of Perry and recalled how she met him before he became popular. She wrote in the caption, “I met Matthew Perry in 1993 at the Williamstown Theater Festival in Massachusetts. We were both there for most of the summer doing plays. He was so funny and so sweet and so much fun to be with. We drove out to swim in creeks, had beers in the local college bar, kissed in a field of long grass. It was a magical summer. He had shot the pilot of Friends but it had not aired yet. He was nervous, hoping his big break was just around the corner. It was. We stayed friends for a while until we drifted apart, but I was always happy to see him when I did. I am super sad today, as so many of us are. I hope Matthew is at peace at long last. I really do.”
In his memoir 'Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing,’ Perry had revealed that before the airing of Friends, he spent a summer doing ‘three notable things’ - “gambling in Vegas at the behest of ['Friends' director] Jimmy Burrows; a trip to Mexico on my own; and a make-out session in a closet with Gwyneth Paltrow."
"She was doing a play there, and I was visiting my grandfather. At some big party, we slipped off into a broom cupboard and made out. We were both still unknown enough that it didn't make it to the tabloids,” he had written.
"This was the last summer of my life when I could make out at a party with a beautiful young woman called Gwyneth and no one, save Gwyneth and I, cared," Perry had added.