Matthew Perry fans flocked to Manhattan’s West Village Sunday to pay tribute to the “Friends” actor, a day after he apparently drowned at his Los Angeles home.
Perry, 54, and his famous co-stars immortalized the apartment building at 90 Bedford Street, which the characters on the classic ’90s sitcom called home.
Although the show was filmed on a Hollywood soundstage, it featured regular exterior shots of the six-story building, where a makeshift memorial was erected Sunday, as several dozen mourners braved the rain to place flowers and hand-written tributes at the base of a lamppost out front.
A couple from Staten Island laid two bouquets of yellow and gold flowers in honor of Perry, who had detailed his extensive battles with drug and alcohol addiction in his memoir “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing,” published last year.
“Even when he was struggling, he was making us put a smile on,” Jamie George told The Post.
She and her partner, Vish Weerasingha, were at an Enrique Iglesias concert Saturday night when they got the news.
“It kind of killed the mood,” Weerasingha said.
“He was the main character to put a smile on,” Weerasingha added of Perry’s Chandler Bing. “He was definitely the favorite character.”
A British family on a four-day vacation to the Big Apple said it was “surreal” to be in the city when their favorite fictional New Yorker died.
“He’s a comedy hero of mine. It’s quite surreal really to be able to come and pay our respects,” said father Steve Rogers.
Rogers said that he and his wife tune in to “Friends” every night at around 6 p.m. in the UK.
He described Perry as a “troubled soul,” but said the actor’s offscreen life never changed their feelings about him.
“He was always Chandler,” the fan said.
His 17-year-old daughter, Maiya, said she loved to watch “Friends” blooper reels, and that it felt “really weird” to be in the US at the time of Perry’s death.
Brazilian native Jeniffer Alvez came to corner of Bedford and Grove Street dressed in black and wearing a “Friends” shirt.
She moved to the city three months before the COVID-19 pandemic, and said she watched the show every day during the lockdown.
“All of them, especially Matthew, help me through the darkest time in my life,” Alvez said through tears.
“They were such a part of my life. I didn’t know I would feel this way,” she said, wiping her eyes.
“I’m not sure how I’m going to feel when I watch ‘Friends’ again after this. I hope he rests in peace.”
Dublin native Alex Jimenez — who’s lived in New York for the past eight years and has been a Friends devotee since the series debuted in 1994 — came to snap a quick pic and pay his respects.
“He just brought laughter,” Jimenez said, reflecting on Perry’s role as Chandler. “I’ve actually been re-watching the show recently. It’s kind of sad the way it ended.”
As online tributes poured in from Hollywood, crowds ebbed and flowed at the impromptu vigil, with intermittent rain sweeping through Manhattan.
A dog walker and a wedding procession passed by the lamppost, pausing for a moment to read the signs paying tribute to Perry before continuing on their way.
Husband and wife Gabi and Clint McCullough of Minneapolis had been in New York for 24 hours when they got the news of Perry’s passing.
Clint said his wife is “as big [a fan] as it gets,” and when it comes to the sitcom – she wins trivia nights at local breweries and will regularly have the show on in the background at their Minnesota home.
For her part, Gabi described “Friends” as “comforting and familiar,” adding, “You always know what to expect—what the next line is going to be.”
She started watching the show in the ’90s with her mom, fondly recalling the quality time spent tuning in together on Thursday nights.
“It was special bonding time for my mom and I.”
She told The Post she had finished Perry’s memoir four days before coming to the city.
“He was so aware of how the six of them captured lightning in a bottle,” she said of Perry and the cast.
She also thought it was to Perry’s credit as a performer that his substance abuse issues never affected his acting.
“I don’t see it,” she said, even knowing what she now knows upon re-watching episodes.
Officials were conducting toxicology tests to determine Perry’s cause of death, a process that could take months.
Law enforcement officials told TMZ that illegal drugs were not found on the scene.