HIS HEARTBREAKING LAST DAYS

AUTHORITIES CHARGE FIVE PEOPLE IN THE BELOVED ACTOR'S DEATHAND PAINT A STARK PICTURE OF HOW HE WAS EXPLOITED AS HIS LIFE SPIRALED OUT OF CONTROL

- ERIC ANDERSSON

Before Matthew Perry died of an accidental drug overdose at his home in L.A.’s Pacific Palisades neighborhood last Oct. 28, many close to the 54-year-old Friends star believed he was doing well. Just the year before, in his memoir Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, the actor—writing with the dry wit that earned him millions of fans around the globe—chronicled his debilitating dependency on alcohol and painkillers, which he abused for much of his adult life. Explaining to People why he told his story, he said, “I wanted to share when I was safe from going into the dark side again.”

But addiction, that heartbreaking and pernicious disease, never loosened its grip. At about 8:30 a.m. on the day he died, Perry asked his livein assistant Kenneth Iwamasa to inject him with ketamine, a quick-acting anesthetic and Schedule III controlled substance that only medical professionals can legally administer (see box, page 29). A bit more than four hours later, the actor wanted a second shot while he watched a movie. Perry then asked Iwamasa to prepare his hot tub for use and inject a third dose: “Shoot me up with a big one,” he said, according to court documents filed by prosecutors and obtained by People. Iwamasa complied and left the gated $5 million home to run errands. When he returned that afternoon, Perry was dead, face down in the hot tub.