Though still grieving, Matthew Perry’s loved ones are turning his death into a legacy of helping others

(CNN) — Matthew Perry often spoke about how much he wanted to help people. One year after his death, those who loved him are healing with the same sentiment at the forefront of their minds.

“It’s been hard on everyone,” Perry’s sister Caitlin Morrison told CNN in a recent interview.

Morrison, who is the daughter of Suzanne Morrison and Perry’s stepfather, ‘Dateline’ correspondent Keith Morrison, serves as the executive director for the Matthew Perry Foundation of Canada, which launched just last week.

It had been the actor’s longtime dream help others struggling with addiction. Now, those who knew him best are working to make his wish a reality in his absence.

The Matthew Perry Foundation of Canada is focused on providing housing, mental health, career and financial support to individuals in their first year of recovery as they navigate what Morrison described as a “very tenuous time in early sobriety,” a time she said she experienced Perry also struggle with.

“I remember him saying quite a few times that that first year was just such a beast. There were so many roadblocks and so many difficulties,” she recalled. “We thought it would be kind of exactly a thing that would be aligned with something he wanted to do, to say, ‘Well, let’s help people. Let’s help people get past that hurdle that was such a high and difficult hurdle to get over when he was first fighting his battle.’”

Perry’s mother, his lifelong friend Brian Murray and Cara Vaccarino, the president and CEO of Canadian mental health research firm The Royal, are also involved with the organization.

Morrison said that pouring herself into task has aided in her own healing.

“If the work that I’m doing right now saves a family from feeling that way, that’s a relief to my own grief,” she added.

‘He’s still so central to our lives’

Perry is best known for playing the quick-witted and lovable Chandler Bing on “Friends,” alongside Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer and Matt LeBlanc from 1994 to 2004. He also played Oscar Madison in the 2015 reboot of “The Odd Couple” series, and appeared in films including “17 Again,” “The Whole Nine Yards” and “Fools Rush In,” among others.

His acting style gravitated toward franticly funny but could veer toward vulnerably human with charming ease. It was always uniquely his own.

Behind the scenes, he struggled with addiction, which he chronicled in his 2022 memoir “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing.” By speaking publicly about it, Perry sought to bring comfort and healing to those facing the same adversities that he did.

Perry died at his Pacific Palisades home in October 2023. He was 54.

His death, according to the Los Angeles Medical Examiner’s Office autopsy report, was a result of “acute effects of ketamine” and subsequent drowning.

Five people have since been charged in connection with his death.

Three of the five people charged have taken plea deals, while the other two are set to go to trial this spring.

In November 2023, days after Perry’s death, Lisa Kasteler and Doug Chapin – his former longtime publicist and manager, respectively – established the Matthew Perry Foundation in California. Chapin jokingly calls it “the last order we got from our client.”

“And we immediately put it into effect,” he said.

The organization is sponsored and maintained by the National Philanthropic Trust, which helps the Matthew Perry Foundation provide resources and funding for west coast-based organizations working to combat addiction in their communities.

Chapin and Kasteler said that stigma played a role in the challenges that Perry faced along his own recovery journey, and that combating that stigma is one of their main objectives.

“I know if Matthew hadn’t been ashamed, he’d be here,” Kasteler said. “If we do nothing more than get rid of the stigma around this, because that just leads to so many other things, then I’ll be happy.”

Kasteler – who lovingly described Perry as her “favorite” client – was planning to retire after a decades-long career leading powerhouse PR agency Wolf Kasteler before Perry died. She now serves as the executive director of the foundation. Chapin is the foundation’s board president.

Acknowledging how rare it is in the entertainment industry to have had such a longstanding, deeply personal relationship with a client, both Kasteler and Chapin said their continued work at the foundation throughout this past year has helped keep Perry close to their hearts.

“Retirement didn’t exactly work out,” Kasteler said. “But that’s okay because I think this is the most important work that I’ve done.”

Added Chapin: “He still feels alive in a lot of ways. He’s still so central to our lives and we’re still basically working for him. It keeps him alive. So it’s a thing that helps on these tough days.”

‘Cherish every moment’

Many of Perry’s former co-stars have been open about their grief.

His “Friends” castmates put out a statement in the days after his death, but individually, they have continued to speak to the pain of his absence.

In a tribute last year, Aniston wrote, “Being able to really SIT in this grief allows you to feel the moments of joy and gratitude for having loved someone that deep. And we loved him deeply.”

His “Friends” castmates weren’t the only ones. Throughout his career, Perry was part of several ensemble casts.

In recent interview with CNN, Yvette Nicole Brown, who starred with Perry and Thomas Lennon on “The Odd Couple,” remembered Perry as “an open book,” whose loss taught her “to cherish every moment.”

“You don’t know when the last time you’re going to speak to someone is,” she said. “That’s the greatest lesson from him.”

As much as Brown looked up to Perry as a professional, she admitted she was also a fan. In their early days on set, she worked to quell her excitement, only looking at Perry in the eye when she had to. Perry caught on.

“He was like, ‘Yvette, come on. It’s me. We’re here together,’” she recalled. “He was very aware – and not from a conceited or arrogant space – of his impact (and) he wanted people to be comfortable. More than anything, Matthew wanted people to be comfortable.”

Perry always cared for people and wanted them to be okay, Brown said – whether they were costars or a stranger walking their own path through addiction.

“That is why I continue to say yes to speaking about him, because I don’t want anything else that comes out in the salacious space to overshadow the heart of him and the kindness of him, the friendship of him,” she said. “The circumstances of how he left here and the people who had a hand in it, that should not be the last word on who he was as a human being. He was so much more than that, so much more than that.”

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.