Actor Matthew Perry laid to rest in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES – Actor Matthew Perry,

who died last Saturday at age 54

, was laid to rest on Friday at a Los Angeles cemetery in a service attended by relatives and castmates from the hit 1990s television sitcom Friends, show-business media reported, citing photographs.

Mourners gathered at the Forest Lawn cemetery in the Hollywood Hills neighbourhood, near the Warner Brothers studio where the show was filmed.

It is also the final resting place of numerous Hollywood A-listers, including singer Michael Jackson and actresses Lucille Ball and Elizabeth Taylor.

Perry, who played wise-cracking Chandler Bing on Friends from 1994 to 2004, was found dead in his Los Angeles home, generating an outpouring of grief from fans and fellow celebrities.

The five surviving co-stars

of the show on Monday paid tribute to him in a joint message lamenting his death as an “unfathomable loss”.

Media including TMZ and the New York Post’s Page Six reported Friday’s event, posting long-distance and aerial photographs of people in attendance.

All five Friends co-stars – Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer – were there, TMZ said.

Page Six said Perry’s father, Mr John Bennett Perry, and his stepfather, Mr Keith Morrison, were also there.

In all, about 20 people dressed in black attended and gathered around a burial plot, TMZ said.

Forest Hills did not respond to a Reuters request for confirmation.

The cause and manner of Perry’s death are to be determined by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office, following completion of an autopsy with toxicology tests.

Perry’s death came one year after the publication of his memoir, Friends, Lovers, And The Big Terrible Thing, which chronicled his decades-long struggle with addiction to prescription painkillers and alcohol. At the time, Perry said he had been sober for about 18 months.

Also on Friday, a foundation in Perry’s name was launched to support people struggling with addiction.

The Matthew Perry Foundation “will honour his legacy and be guided by his own words and experiences and driven by his passion for making a difference in as many lives as possible”, according to its website.

The website leads with a quote from Perry: “When I die, I don’t want Friends to be the first thing that’s mentioned – I want helping others to be the first thing that’s mentioned.” REUTERS