Matthew Perry’s grieving father was spotted out and about in California on what would have been his late son’s 55th birthday.
Nearly a year after the Friends star’s fatal overdose, her loss appears to have taken a physical toll on once-estranged father John Bennett Perry, who appeared frail and dejected as he went about his household chores outside his Ojai home on Monday.
The 83-year-old retired singer and actor was last photographed alongside his son in a touching photo shared on Instagram just two weeks before his untimely death last October.
The two were seen smiling broadly, with young Perry’s arm around his father’s shoulder.
But the grieving father was seen looking a much slimmer and more sombre ten months later on Monday on the actor’s birthday, exclusive photos from DailyMail.com show.
Matthew Perry’s grieving father John, 83, was photographed for the first time since his son’s funeral last year, as he lay in hiding in Ojai, California, on what would have been the actor’s 55th birthday.
The retired actor and singer appeared frail and dejected as he tended to yard work at his Ojai home on Monday.
The father-son duo had a complicated history, but later developed a close relationship. They were last photographed together in a touching photo shared on Instagram just two weeks before Matthew’s tragic death in October 2023.
He was photographed doing some gardening work outside his rural home. He was wearing a grey T-shirt, blue jeans and black leather boots.
This is the first time he has been seen since Matthew’s memorial in November 2023, following his death from a ketamine overdose.
Matthew had spoken candidly about his once-troubled relationship with his father in his memoir Friends, Lovers, and The Big Terrible Thing, published in 2022, including how John had “abandoned” him as a child.
He detailed the ill-fated love story of his beauty queen mother, Suzanne Perry, and his father, who was the lead singer of the folk group Serendipity Singers.
Matthew described how John left his family as a baby to pursue his dream of acting in California.
The split forced young Perry to travel between Los Angeles and Canada to spend time with each of his parents, something he said he found “scary” at first.
Meanwhile, John focused on pursuing his career on the big screen, which at one point became the only medium through which Matthew would see him.
“That was, to a large extent, the way I saw my father when I was young,” the comedy icon wrote in his memoir.
“On TV shows, you know, when they shoot him through a door in Mannix, or something. That’s my dad.”
Although he struggled with the pain of abandonment, Matthew continued to enjoy a close relationship with his biological father, as well as his mother’s second husband, television journalist Keith Morrison, who raised him in Canada.
John was photographed doing some gardening work outside his rural home. He was wearing a grey t-shirt, blue jeans and black leather boots.
The pain of the tragic loss appears to have taken a physical toll on the father, who appeared noticeably thinner and more emaciated.
John had previously guest-starred in a 1998 episode of Friends called The One With Rachel’s New Dress.
John had preceded his son into the acting profession, enjoying a notable performance as The Sailor in Old Spice commercials in the 1970s and 1980s.
She also appeared alongside Matthew in an episode of Friends and the two guest-starred on the medical comedy Scrubs, where they played an estranged father-son duo.
One of Matthew’s last Instagram posts showed him proudly standing next to John, arm in arm, as they both held soft drinks and smiled broadly for the camera.
The Friends alum captioned the photo: ‘Here’s me and my dad John both holding a drink.’
Sadly, just two weeks later, Perry, who had been open about his battle to overcome a decades-long drug and alcohol addiction, was found unconscious in the hot tub of his Los Angeles home on October 28.
No drugs were found at the scene and there was no indication that a crime had been committed at the time.
Last week, authorities announced a breakthrough in the case that resulted in the arrest of five suspects accused of playing a role in Perry’s fatal overdose.
The suspects were arrested last Thursday on charges of being part of a “vast underground criminal network” that supplied the Friends star with the ketamine that killed him in October 2023.
Matthew had spoken candidly about his once-troubled relationship with his father in his memoir Friends, Lovers, and The Big Terrible Thing, published in 2022.
In his last Instagram post in October, the star shared images of himself in his hot tub.
Despite initially struggling with the pain of abandonment by his biological father (left), Matthew later enjoyed a close relationship with him, as well as his mother’s second husband, television journalist Keith Morrison (right), who raised him in Canada.
Doctors Salvador Plasencia, 42, and Mark Chavez, 54, alleged drug dealers Jasveen Sangha, 41, and Eric Fleming, 54, and Perry’s assistant Kenny Iwamasa, 59, have been charged.
Chilling new details have emerged from the investigation into Perry’s overdose, including the events that prosecutors say occurred just after his death.
Iwamasa is alleged to have cleaned up evidence at the scene of her death, after allegedly administering a lethal dose of ketamine to the Friends star, according to court documents.
Perry had been receiving ketamine treatments for depression (an increasingly common off-label use) from his regular doctor, but was unable to get as much as he wanted.
Plasencia is accused of texting his doctor friend Chavez in San Diego, who agreed to get him ketamine.
Erik Fleming is alleged to have served as a middleman between Sangha (the accused drug dealer known as the “Ketamine Queen” who allegedly provided the lethal dose) and Iwamasa.
Plasencia and Sangha have pleaded not guilty, while the others have accepted plea deals.
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