Tributes poured in from all corners of Hollywood when the news came of Matthew Perry’s death at age 54 on Saturday. The actor, best known for starring as Chandler Bing in “Friends,” was found dead in a hot tub at his home in Los Angeles.

Many of the sentiments posted online Saturday pointed to Perry as the heart of the humor in “Friends.” As written in a tribute by Variety‘s chief correspondent Daniel D’Addario, “the character’s caustic wit, as performed by a master comic actor, presented as nothing more and nothing less than observational humor about his friends: One degree harsher and it would have tanked the show, one degree softer and it wouldn’t have landed.”

Several also referenced Perry’s struggle with alcoholism and drug addiction, which he discussed publicly throughout his career, especially in his memoir “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing.”

“We are shocked and deeply,...