Hank Azaria Mourns The Late Matthew Perry, His “First Friend” In Los Angeles: “He Was Just The Funniest Person Ever”

Like many of his co-stars and fellow actors, Hank Azaria is honoring Matthew Perry following his sudden death on Saturday (Oct. 28) at age 54.

In an Instagram video shared to his account on Sunday (Oct. 29), Azaria reflected on his start in the industry, when he was coming up as a young actor alongside Perry.

“Matthew was the first friend I made in Los Angeles when I moved there,” Azaria said. “I was 21. He was 16. We did a pilot together called Morning Maggie that never saw the light of day, but Matthew and I became really good friends. We were really more like brothers for a long time.”

He continued, “We drank a lot together, we laughed a lot together, we were there for each other in the early days of our career. And he was, to me, as funny as he was on Friends and other things, too. In person, he was just the funniest person ever.”

Azaria appeared in five episodes of Friends as David, a scientist who was one of Phoebe’s (Lisa Kudrow) first love interests, per IMDb.

In his tribute, Azaria said that Perry “just lived to laugh” and “was like a genius.”

“Every night he would start to weave comedy threads together, just hanging out,” he added. “A joke here, a joke there, a joke here, a joke there, and then by the end of the night, he would weave them all together in like this crescendo of hilarity. Most nights you spent with Matthew, you were crying laughing by the end. I really loved him.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Hank Azaria (@hankazaria)

The Simpsons star noted that many “who were close to him felt like [they] lost him to drugs and alcohol a long time ago.”

“Because as he documented in his autobiography, there was so much suffering,” he said. “I had to pick up and put down that autobiography like 11 times [because] it was so painful for me to read. As his friend who loved him, I knew he must be suffering, but the details of it were just devastating.”

Azaria revealed that he’s “been a sober guy for 17 years,” and that Perry was the one to bring him to his first AA meeting.

“The whole first year I was sober, we went to meetings together,” Azaria recalled. “And he was such a great — I got to tell him this, as a sober person, he was so caring and giving and wise, and he totally helped me get sober.”

He added, “I mean, I know he had gone in and out [of sobriety] for years. You know, he documented it all publicly and then in the book, but it’s heartbreaking for those of us who loved him and knew him really well personally. We just missed him. It’s one of the terrible things about this disease, is it just takes away the person you love.”

Azaria continued to commend Perry’s “brilliant” work as an actor, saying, “I just wish I and the world could have gotten what the rest of his career would have been.”

Perry, who struggled with alcohol and drug addiction, said in a resurfaced 2020 interview that he wished that he primarily be known for “the things [he] did to try to help other people,” particularly “far behind” his work on Friends.

If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, call the SAMHSA National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357.