Devastating news. Matthew Perry has passed away at the age of 54. TMZ broke the news on Saturday, and it appears that it was an accidental drowning in the jacuzzi at his LA-area home. TMZ also reports that Perry had played pickleball for two hours earlier in the day, and his assistant found him.

Perry is best known for his much-loved role as Chandler Bing on Friends, for which he was nominated for multiple Emmys and SAG Awards. Like most brilliant comedic actors, he was an underrated dramatic actor too, and one of my favorite Perry roles was his recurring guest appearance on The West Wing. He also had a decent film career, working with Salma Hayek on Fools Rush In and Bruce Willis in The Whole Nine Yards (another underrated performance). But he was best known for his television work, and of course he was best known for Friends. I’m sure his Friends castmates are devastated – he was reportedly very close to Jennifer Aniston and Matt LeBlanc.

Last year, Perry released his memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir. It was about his life, his work and his struggles to get clean and sober. By all accounts, he was clean in recent years, and there’s no indication that his passing is related to anything like that.

I’ve been trying to think of my favorite Perry/Chandler Bing moment, the moment where he just seemed to be in full flight as a comedic actor, and I think it’s this one, where Phoebe is trying to “seduce” Chandler as a way to force him to admit that he’s dating Monica.

Photos credit: Ron Wolfson / Avalon, Andrew Eccles / Avalon, Backgrid and Cover Images