Matthew Perry’s Cause of Death “Deferred,” Says Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office

The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s office on Sunday release its first report on Matthew Perry, who died Saturday at age 54.

Perry was discovered unresponsive in a hot tub at his Los Angeles home around 4 p.m. Saturday, law enforcement sources told The Los Angeles Times.

On Sunday, the coroner’s office updated its case online, saying that the cause of death had been “deferred.” That typically means that an autopsy has been completed, but the examiner needs more time and additional investigation into the death.

“Deferred means that after an autopsy, a cause of death has not been determined and the medical examiner is requesting more investigation into the death, including additional studies,” a spokesperson for the department previously explained, when the coroner deferred the case of death for Lisa-Marie Presley, who died in January. “Once the tests/studies come back, the doctor evaluates the case again and makes the cause of death determination.”

A spokesperson told People on Sunday that the results of Perry’s autopsy are pending a toxicology report, which can take several weeks to complete.

The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to the medical examiner’s office for additional information.

Perry, who rose to fame playing Chandler Bing on NBC’s long-running hit sitcom Friends, was open about his decades-long struggles with substance abuse, reflecting on his struggles to get sober in his 2022 memoir, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing. While promoting the book, he noted he had been clean for 18 months, but he acknowledged in 2015 that it was not an easy process.

“You can’t have a drug problem for 30 years and then expect to have it solved in 28 days,” he said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “I’ve had a lot of ups and downs in my life and a lot of wonderful accolades, but the best thing about me is that if an alcoholic comes up to me and says, ‘Will you help me stop drinking?’ I will say, ‘Yes. I know how to do that.’”

Perry also worked to help others become sober, turning his former Malibu beach home into a men’s sober living facility named The Perry House. 

In addition to Friends, he also starred in the feature films The Whole Nine Yards and its sequel, along with Fools Rush In, Almost Heroes, Three to Tango and Serving Sara along with the TV series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Mr. Sunshine and Go On.