As much as the late Matthew Perry wanted to be a successful actor, he also craved the fame that came along with it. “There was steam coming out of my ears, I wanted to be famous so badly,” the actor admitted to The New York Times in 2002. “You want the attention, you want the bucks, and you want the best seat in the restaurant.”

That desire came true when Perry landed the role of the witty and sarcastic Chandler Bing on Friends in 1994. “The part of Chandler leapt off the page, shook my hand, and said, ‘This is you, man!’” he told Entertainment Weekly in 1997.

The ensemble sitcom—starring Perry alongside Jennifer Aniston , Courteney Cox , Lisa Kudrow , Matt LeBlanc , and David Schwimmer —couldn’t have come at a better time for the Ottawa-raised actor who had previously starred on a string of failed comedies. “I desperately— desperately —needed the money,” he once said .

Once he landed Friends , his financial problems were solved.…