STARS PAY TRIBUTE TO A BELOVED FRIEND

Following the death of actor Matthew Perry, co-stars honour his kindness, generosity and exceptional talent

He was a much-loved Friend, a brilliant writer and The One With All The Jokes - but Matthew Perry wanted to be remembered most for trying to help people who battled addiction.

Friends actor Matthew - best known for playing the ever-sarcastic Chandler Bing - died, aged 54, at his home in Los Angeles on 28 October. He was reportedly found unresponsive in his hot tub and his cause of death is still to be determined.

Despite an intensely fought battle with opioid and alcohol addiction, Matthew's impeccable comic timing put Chandler at the heart of the show, which ran for 10 series from 1994 to 2004 and defined a generation. Friends' global success saw Matthew and his co-stars Jennifer Aniston (Rachel), Courteney Cox (Monica), Lisa Kudrow (Phoebe), Matt LeBlanc (Joey) and David Schwimmer (Ross) become the first television stars to earn $1 million (£811,000) per episode.

Chandler was the Friend that so many could relate to - he struggled with women, worked in an industry he disliked and used sarcasm as a defence mechanism. He had a razor-like wit but showed vulnerability, once admonishing pal Ross for a jibe, yelping, "What are you doing? You know I can only dish it out!"

However, despite his scene-stealing brilliance – Matthew once spent a whole episode lying in a box to apologize for kissing Joey’s girlfriend and still got all the laughs – the actor was unable to ever enjoy rewatching episodes of Friends because he could see past the performance to a man who was struggling with addictions.