David Schwimmer has been spotted walking to his New York City apartment a day after he and his Friends co-stars paid tribute to Matthew Perry.
Schwimmer, who played Ross on the long running sitcom, was spotted wearing a baseball cap and a face mask as he left his home in Manhattan.
The 56-year-old, who starred alongside Perry for the entirety of the decade-long run of Friends, appeared downbeat.
Just 24 hours earlier Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and Schwimmer all signed a statement, telling fans they are heartbroken by the news of Perry’s death on Saturday.
The cast told People: ‘We are all so utterly devastated by the loss of Matthew. We were more than just cast mates. We are a family.’
David Schwimmer was spotted wearing a baseball cap and a face mask as returned to his home in Manhattan on Tuesday
The 56-year-old, who starred alongside Matthew Perry for the entirety of the decade-long run of Friends, appeared downbeat
Courteney Cox starred as Monica Geller, Matthew Perry as Chandler Bing, Jennifer Aniston as Rachel Green, David Schwimmer as Ross Geller, Matt LeBlanc as Joey Tribbiani, and Lisa Kudrow as Phoebe Buffay in the hit sitcom
‘There is so much to say, but right now we’re going to take a moment to grieve and process this unfathomable loss.’
The stars continued: ‘In time we will say more, as and when we are able.
‘For now, our thoughts and our love are with Matty’s family, his friends, and everyone who loved him around the world.’
Perry famously starred as Chandler Bing in the popular sitcom, alongside Aniston as Rachel, Cox as Monica, LeBlanc as Joey, Kudrow as Phoebe and Schwimmer as Ross.
Friends, which followed the lives of six friends in their 20s living in New York, was a smash hit across the globe when it aired between 1994 and 2004, and re-runs still remain hugely popular years later.
On Sunday, a source Page Six that the cast is ‘reeling’ from the loss of their ‘brother’ Matthew.
‘The cast is reeling from the loss of their brother, because that’s what Matty was — their brother,’ an industry source told the news outlet, adding: ‘It’s just devastating.’
Perry was found underwater in his hot tub by his assistant, who lifted his head up to try to get him some air, first responders have revealed.
But, by the time the Los Angeles Fire Department, arrived at the Friends star’s Pacific Palisades home on Saturday and lifted him out of the jacuzzi, he was already dead.
Captain Erik Scott, with the LAFD said: ‘Los Angeles City Firefighters responded [and] found an adult male unconscious in a stand-alone hot tub.
‘A bystander had brought the man’s head above the water and gotten him to the edge, then firefighters removed him from the water upon their arrival.
‘A rapid medical assessment, sadly, revealed the man was deceased prior to first responder arrival.
‘The circumstances are under investigation by LAPD and the LA County Medical Examiner. We mourn with families and friends who lose a loved one unexpectedly.’
Schwimmer, Aniston, Cox , Kudrow and LeBlanc signed a statement on Monday telling fans they are heartbroken by the news of Perry’s death
Schwimmer and his co-stars said they were ‘utterly devastated by the loss of Matthew’
Perry is believed to have drowned, although an official cause of death has not yet been determined.
An initial autopsy result has been ‘deferred’, with toxicology reports set to follow. It comes after a 15-second dispatch call emerged revealing the moment his assistant called 911 to report a cardiac arrest.
The recording of the moment emergency services rushed to the scene was shared which describes a drowning – known as an Emergency Medical Situation 9.
A first responder can be heard saying: ‘Agent 23. Rescue 23. EMS 9 on the radio. In response to the drowning.’
The actor was open about his battles with opiates and booze, but said he was clean in recent interviews.
First responders are said to have found anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medications at the property – but there was no sign of any illegal drugs.
The coroner for Los Angeles County has listed Perry’s cause of death as ‘deferred’, pending the final results of toxicology tests.
On Sunday afternoon, the coroner released his body to the family, but said they are yet to determine a cause of death.
The Medical Examiner’s office can release initial results within days, or it can take six to eight weeks for final results of toxicology tests to come back.
Schwimmer is seen here alongside Perry and Matt LeBlanc who all appeared in the hit show
Schwimmer as Dr. Ross Geller, Perry as Chandler Bing – pictured in 1998
Perry wrote in his memoir, published last year, that he had spent $9 million trying to get sober, revealing he had been to 6,000 AA meetings, gone to rehab 15 times, and been in detox 65 times.
He said he overcame addiction in 2021 and was believed to be leading a healthier lifestyle.
He had taken up pickle ball – a game similar to tennis and table tennis – and usually played it twice a day, friends said.
When sharing about his substance abuse and the toll it began to take on his body, The Whole Nine Yards star confessed he was taking as many as 55 Vicodin pills a day, which contributed to his weight dropping to just 128 pounds.
‘I didn’t know how to stop,’ Perry admitted in an interview with People last year, before sharing an analogy that explains the power the drugs and alcohol had over him at the height of his TV career.
‘If the police came over to my house and said, ‘If you drink tonight, we’re going to take you to jail,’ I’d start packing.
‘I couldn’t stop because the disease and the addiction is progressive. So it gets worse and worse as you grow older,’ he explained.
In his own mind, Perry thought he was doing a perfectly fine job hiding his drug and alcohol usage from his co-stars, but at a certain point they all knew he was in trouble and did their best to support him.
‘[They] were understanding, and they were patient,’ he recalled of the Friends cast.
‘It’s like penguins. Penguins, in nature, when one is sick, or when one is very injured, the other penguins surround it and prop it up.
‘They walk around it until that penguin can walk on its own. That’s kind of what the cast did for me.’
For a while, Perry thought he could hide behind his infectious humor, and push forward with his life on the wings of the success of Friends.
‘I thought being funny all the time was how I would get through,’ he said. ‘I thought [Friends] was going to fix everything. It didn’t.’
Perry is pictured earlier last week, the last time he was seen in public before being found dead at his LA home
People stand before flower tributes to actor Matthew Perry outside the apartment building which was used as the exterior shot in the TV show Friends in New York on Sunday
Ultimately, Perry would get clean and sober in 2001, but he estimated that he relapsed ’60 or 70 times’ over the years, according to his 2022 memoir Friends, Lovers, And The Big Terrible Thing.
Along the way he had many stints in rehabilitation facilities and suffered through a number of serious health issues, including a five-month hospitalization in 2018 after his colon ruptured due to opioid overuse.
He was given just a two percent chance to live at one point while in the hospital, Perry confessed in the memoir, but in the end he would survive.
‘I’m an extremely grateful guy. I’m grateful to be alive, that’s for sure. And that gives me the possibility to do anything,’ he shared with obvious emotion during the People interview in 2022.
Perry went on to reveal that part of his inspiration for writing an open and honest memoir, with all the ups and downs, was the hope that his stories could serve as kind of lifeline for others like Aniston was for him.