The American-Canadian actor was found dead at his Los Angeles home on Oct. 28. He was 54.
The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office has listed actor Matthew Perry’s cause of death as “deferred,” as his autopsy results are pending a toxicology report.
Mr. Perry, who gained worldwide fame for playing the wise-cracking Chandler Bing on the hugely popular 1990s sitcom “Friends,” was found dead at his Los Angeles, Calif. home on Oct. 28. He was 54.
A representative for the medical examiner’s office told People Magazine on Oct. 29 that an autopsy had been completed and that toxicology results were pending. An autopsy is usually completed within a day or two after a person’s death, but the final results of a toxicology report can take weeks to come through.
According to a record of Mr. Perry’s cause of death, his body had been cleared for release so that family members could make funeral arrangements.
The cherished actor was found unresponsive in a hot tub at his residence in the affluent Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles shortly after 4 p.m. on Oct. 28, according to tabloid news outlet TMZ, which first broke the story.
Unnamed police sources cited by the outlet said emergency services were called to the scene following an initial report of a cardiac arrest. A 15-second recording of the moment first responders were sent to the scene had been obtained by TMZ, and referenced an apparent drowning.
The Los Angeles Police Department’s Robbery-Homicide Division is handling the investigation into Mr. Perry’s death. The agency said no drugs were found at the location, and that there had been no indication of foul play.
Asked about the circumstances of Mr. Perry’s death, Los Angeles Fire Department Captain Erik Scott said—without referring to Mr. Perry by name—that firefighters called to an address in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood found “an adult male unconscious in a stand-alone jacuzzi.”
“A bystander had brought the man’s head above the water and gotten him to the edge, then firefighters removed him from the water upon their arrival,” Mr. Scott said, adding that a medical assessment at the scene had revealed that “the man was deceased” before emergency personnel arrived.
By Lorenz Duchamps
