SEE THE FINAL PICTURE OF SITCOM ACTOR TAKEN BEFORE HE DIED AT 54 AFTER HIS CAUSE OF DEATH WAS CONFIRMED
His death came as a huge shock to TV fans: On Oct. 28, 2023, “Friends” star Matthew Perry passed away at 54.
TMZ reported that the actor was discovered at his home in Los Angeles’s Pacific Palisades area, where he appeared to have drowned — in the hot tub in his backyard.
On Dec. 15, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office — which conducted an autopsy — released the toxicology report which concluded that Matthew died from “the acute effects of ketamine,” which is a drug that’s sometimes used to treat depression and is also used recreationally. It caused both cardiovascular overstimulation and respiratory depression. The report revealed that the star had last undergone ketamine infusion therapy for depression and anxiety a week and a half before his death but that the ketamine found in his system when he died “could not be from that infusion therapy, since ketamine’s half-life is 3 to 4 hours, or less,” the report stated, according to TMZ.
The report further revealed that there was no evidence of alcohol, methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin, PCP or fentanyl in his system and that contributory factors in his death included drowning, coronary artery disease and the effects of buprenorphine, a drug used to wean addicts off opioids. The report also revealed that Matthew smoked two packs of cigarettes a day, had COPD/emphysema and diabetes and that, according to interviews conducted by the medical examiner, had been sober for 19 months.
This picture of Matthew is one of the final pictures taken of him in public before his untimely passing: The Emmy nominee was photographed leaving an office building in Los Angeles on Oct. 3, 2023.
Keep reading for more info on the circumstances surrounding his death, to see a photo he posted of himself in his hot tub just days before he was discovered dead, details about his final hours