- - Matthew Perry's gravesite gets major “Friends”-related update more than 2 years after star's death

Jillian SederholmJanuary 3, 2026 at 2:19 AM

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Matthew Perry on 'Friends'Key Points -

Friends star Matthew Perry died of an overdose on Oct. 28, 2023, at age 54.

His Los Angeles gravesite went unmarked for more than two years.

A plaque now honors the actor with a loving reference to his best-known role.

Could this be any more fitting?

More than two years after Matthew Perry's tragic death at 54, the actor's gravesite finally has a plaque bearing his name with a special tribute to his most beloved role, as Chandler Bing on Friends.

Entertainment Weekly visited Perry's final resting place at Forest Lawn Memorial Park — Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles on Thursday and spotted a shiny new plaque on what was until recently an unmarked section of a mausoleum.

Jillian Sederholm for EW

Matthew Perry's memorial plaque on Jan. 1, 2026, at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles

"Matthew Langford Perry," the first line of the plaque reads, with his birth and death dates listed next as "August 19, 1969 - October 28, 2023," followed by the epitaph "Much Loved — Friend —" an obvious nod to his role on the megahit NBC sitcom, which he starred on for 10 seasons, from 1994 to 2004.

During EW's New Year's Day visit, numerous flowers adorned Perry's portion of the mausoleum space. One festive bouquet of red and white flowers and frosted pinecones contained an unsigned card that read, "Thank you for the memories. You are far from forgotten."

There was also a Batman-themed keychain in tribute to Perry's lifelong obsession with the Caped Crusader. The actor even referred to himself as "Mattman" numerous times over the years.

Jillian Sederholm for EW (2)

Matthew Perry's unmarked crypt on Nov. 25, 2025, at Forest Lawn Memorial Park — Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles, and with a new plaque on Jan. 1, 2026

On EW's previous visit on Nov. 25, 2025, the same wall was unmarked.

The five-time Emmy nominee's remains are at a private, outdoor mausoleum section of the cemetery, named Sanctuary of Treasured Love. The remains of Green Mile star Michael Clarke Duncan, who died in 2012 at 54, are just steps away from Perry's, while the dual gravesite of Carrie Fisher and mother Debbie Reynolds is just around the corner. Other nearby graves in this section of Forest Lawn include Bette Davis, Liberace, rocker Ronnie James Dio, and Freddie Prinze, star of Chico and the Man and father of actor Freddie Prinze Jr.

Jillian Sederholm for EW

Gravesite of Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher on Nov., 25, 2025, at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles

The sprawling cemetery includes numerous other famous entertainers, including Brittany Murphy, Paul Walker, John Ritter, Buster Keaton, Bill Paxton, Stan Laurel, and David Carradine.

Most notably for Friends fans, about a 15-minute walk from Perry's site lies the grave of Days of Our Lives star John Aniston, father of Perry's costar and close friend Jennifer Aniston. John Aniston, who played Victor Kiriakis on the NBC soap on and off for 37 years, died at 89 on Nov. 11, 2022, less than a year before Perry's death.

Donna Ward/Getty; Jillian Sederholm for EW

John Aniston in 2011; gravesite of John Anison on Nov. 25, 2025, at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles

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Perry's death was caused by "acute effects of ketamine." He was found unresponsive in a hot tub at his Los Angeles home and pronounced dead at the scene.

Salvador Plasencia, a former doctor who illegally supplied ketamine to the star in the weeks leading up to his death, was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison in December after pleading guilty to four counts of distribution of ketamine in June. Another former doctor, Mark Chavez, was sentenced to eight months of home detention after pleading guilty to one count of conspiring to distribute ketamine to Perry. Three other individuals are awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to crimes in connection with Perry's death.

In the days following Perry's death, his co-leads on Friends — Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, and David Schwimmer — issued a joint statement that said, "We were more than just cast mates. We are a family. There is so much to say, but right now we're going to take a moment to grieve and process this unfathomable loss." They later posted individual tributes of their own.

In a profile for Vanity Fair this past August, Aniston reflected further on her late costar's battle with substance abuse. "We did everything we could when we could," Aniston told the outlet of her and her costars' attempts to help Perry over the years. "But it almost felt like we'd been mourning Matthew for a long time because his battle with that disease was a really hard one for him to fight."

In his 2022 memoir Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, Perry discussed his decades-long battle with drug and alcohol addiction, and his costars' efforts to help him on his journey to sobriety. Perry shared in the book that Aniston was the first costar to confront him about his addiction despite him never having been drunk on set.

Jon Ragel/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty

'Friends' stars Courteney Cox, Matthew Perry, Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer, Lisa Kudrow, and Matt LeBlanc

"'We can smell it,' she said, in a kind of weird but loving way, and the plural 'we' hit me like a sledgehammer," Perry wrote of Aniston. "'I know I'm drinking too much,' I said, 'but I don't exactly know what to do about it.'"

Before his death, Perry became an outspoken substance abuse treatment advocate and had even turned his former Malibu home into a sober living facility called the Perry House.

Decades after the Friends finale, the show has endured as one of the most popular sitcoms of all time. Perry joined his former costars in 2021 to celebrate the series' legacy for HBO Max's unscripted special Friends: The Reunion, in which they returned to their old set at the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank to share laughs and tears while reminiscing. Until the special, the castmates had reportedly only reunited in full once since the sitcom went off the air in 2004.

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