The death of Matthew Perry at age 54 has led to a deluge of coverage about his acting career and his well-known struggles with addiction. The New York Times digs out a fitting quote from Perry himself from a 2002 interview: "I was a guy who wanted to become famous," he said. "There was steam coming out of my ears, I wanted to be famous so badly. You want the attention, you want the bucks, and you want the best seat in the restaurant. I didn't think what the repercussions would be." Perry estimated that he had spent more than half his life in rehab facilities as he tried to kick his addictions to alcohol and drugs. Coverage:
- Couldn't watch: "I was taking 55 Vicodin a day, I weighed 128 pounds, I was on Friends getting watched by 30 million people—and that's why I can't watch the show, 'cause I was brutally thin," Perry told Canada's CBC last year. (The US-born actor spent much of his childhood in Canada.) "I didn't watch the show, and haven't watched the show, because I could go, 'Drinking, opiates, drinking, cocaine,'" he said. "I could tell season by season, by how I looked. That's why I don't wanna watch it, because that's what I see."