Matthew Perry

Matthew Perry is a television star best known as wise-cracking Chandler Bing on the series Friends (1994-2004). Perry spent his younger years with his mother in Canada, where he competed on the junior tennis circuit. As a teenager he moved to Los Angeles (where his father, actor John Bennett Perry, lived and worked) and switched from tennis to acting. In the late 1980s he worked steadily in television and appeared with River Phoenix in the feature film A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon (1988). In 1994 he began as Chandler in Friends, a weekly comedy that became one of the decade's most popular TV shows. The success of the series made stars out of Perry and the rest of the cast, including Jennifer Aniston and Lisa Kudrow. Perry has also appeared in feature films, including The Whole Nine Yards (2000, Bruce Willis), but seems to be more successful on television. He was nominated for Emmys in 2003 and 2004 for a small but memorable role on The West Wing (starring Martin Sheen), and earned praise for his short-lived 2006 series, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

Extra credit: The other Matthew Perry was a 19th century commander in the United States Navy.