Matthew Perry’s parents blame ‘most culpable’ doctor for actor’s death
Matthew Perry’s parents have said his doctor is “among the most culpable of all” in their son’s death after he died from accidental drug overdose.
The late Friends actor, who passed away age 54 in October 2023, was under the acute effects of ketamine at the time of his death.
Dr. Salvador Placenscia was later one of five people convicted of crimes relating to his passing and is set to be sentenced December 3, 2025.
Matthew’s parents have submitted victim impact letters in which they discussed their grief and their anger towards those who played a part in Matthew’s death.
According to Rolling Stone, a letter from Matthew’s mother and stepfather, Suzanne and Keith Morrison, read: “How do you measure grief? Can you possibly provide any rational accounting? The bottom falling out? Yes, that.”
It continued, “Here was a life so entwined with ours and held aloft sometimes with duct tape and bailing wire, with anything that might keep that big terrible thing from killing our first-born son, and our hearts with him.”
“And then those greedy jackals come out of the dark, and all the effort is for nought; it all crashes down,” it further mentioned.
Matthew’s addiction and the people he trusted did instead, with Placenscia – who has admitted to injecting the actor with ketamine and selling him the drug “without a legitimate medical purpose” before his death, label the doctor “among the most culpable of all.”
They wrote: “His story moved so many people. And he wanted, needed, deserved… a third act. It was ..in the planning. And then, those jackals.”
“No one alive and in touch with the world at all could have been unaware of Matthew’s struggles. But this doctor conspired to break his most important vows, repeatedly, sneaked through the night to meet his victim in secret,” the family’s letter stated.
“For what, a few thousand dollars? So he could feed on the vulnerability of our son…and crow, as he did so, with that revealing question: ‘I wonder how much this moron will pay. Let’s find out.’ Some things are very hard to understand,” it concluded.
Meanwhile, Matthew’s father and stepmother, John and Debby Perry, wrote the 43-year-old doctor “didn’t deserve to hear” their feelings and criticised his actions.
They wrote: “[Matthew Perry was] a warm, loving man who was to be our rock as we aged. An uncle to our grandchildren and the mountain his siblings could turn to. Our next patriarch,” they concluded.
