The world is still mourning the death of Matthew Perry, who passed away at 54 on October 28, 2023. The Friends actor's passing sparked an outpouring of love for the late actor, while the year following his death has been tied up in investigations surrounding the ketamine that was involved with his cause of death. His financials also had to be in order, considering his large accumulation of wealth from Friends' residuals and pay. Apparently, there was only $1.5 million in his bank account at the time of his death though, despite his net worth being over $120 million.
Matthew Perry’s Friends Pay Day
The payday for the Friends cast, especially by the end of the show, was extremely high. Their base pay in the first season was $22,500 per episode. However, after years and years of immense success, the cast ended up negotiating up to a million dollars an episode for the last few seasons. Apparently, the network considered Rachel and Ross to be the stars, because Jennifer Aniston and David Schwimmer were offered more, but they ended up taking pay cuts to ensure that each cast member was paid the same.
This would mean that with most of the Friends seasons being 22 episodes, each cast member was making $22 million per season, with the last season being $18 million, due to a decreased episode count. Series co-creator Marta Kauffman thought this was unreasonable, however with the amount of money the network was making from the hit series, it could be argued that the cast made a lot of money for other people, and should be compensated for that factor as well. It was the prime era for network sitcoms, and nothing will likely match the fanfare again.
Not only did Matthew Perry still hold on to whatever remained from his extremely lucrative Friends base pay, he also continued to receive royalties from the hit sitcom. Some estimates say the core Friends cast still made $19-20 million in royalties each year as the show continued to air on network television in syndication. While Perry still had other career opportunities after his days of playing Chandler Bing were over, it’s safe to say that much of his net worth can be credited to his Friends years.
Why Matthew Perry Only Had $1.5 Million In His Bank Account
Even with the Friends residuals still continuing to pay out, Perry had $1,596,914.47 in the bank at the time of his passing according to a report obtained by People.
However, the actor apparently had most of his assets tied up in an Alvy Singer Living Trust, that was created in 2009. These assets included any personal items, property insurance, automobiles, art, jewelry, etc, Us Weekly reported, and the beneficiaries were cited as his parents Suzanne Morrison and John Perry, as well as his half-siblings.
The full extent of Perry’s finances is unknown to the public, but it seems like he was prepared if anything should happen to him. The actor faced drug and alcohol addiction throughout his life, and he chronicled his experience in his memoir Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing. He didn’t have a spouse or children, but based on this report, his belongings went to the people who loved him most.
Fans can currently read Matthew Perry’s memoir by purchasing it on Amazon, or revisit his work on Friends, which is streaming for Max subscribers.
