Matthew Perry’s death caused his manager to retire – after being left almost to single-handedly arrange the Friends star’s funeral, eulogy and body disposal, one of his clients has revealed to DailyMail.com.
Doug Chapin was Perry’s manager for about 30 years, and was ‘devastated’ by the actor’s death from a ketamine overdose last October, Chapin’s screenwriter client Kate Lanier said in an exclusive interview.
Lanier said the tragic death was ‘the straw that broke the camel’s back’ for Chapin, who quit Hollywood management and retired to northern California.
‘He was done with Hollywood. After Matty died, Doug said to me, “I’m done taking care of people in their careers.” He and his husband went traveling to Portugal and Spain and got completely out of the Hollywood scene,’ said Lanier, who now works as a writing coach, and is presenting her new short movie, Lucky, at film festivals.
‘I think that Matty’s death really impacted him. When you are close to an addict, there’s a point when you go: “I’m done. I can’t help this person. They’re on the road to kill themselves.”
‘So I think his death was Doug’s final straw of not wanting to do this work anymore.’
Five people have since been arrested for the actor’s death, including two physicians.
Matthew Perry ’s death caused his manager to retire – after being left to almost single-handedly arrange the Friends star’s funeral, eulogy and body disposal
Doug Chapin’s screenwriter client Kate Lanier said Perry’s long-time manager was ‘devastated’ by the actor’s death from a ketamine overdose
Lanier, a 60-year-old Santa Barbara native, said she also worked closely for decades with Chapin and Perry’s assistant, Kenny Iwamasa, who pleaded guilty this month to helping purchase and inject Perry with ketamine – including shooting him up the day he died.
Despite his role in Perry’s death, Lanier said she believed the 59-year-old didn’t mean to harm the Friends star.
‘It’s tricky, I’m of two minds,’ she said. ‘There’s so much new information that’s been coming out about ketamine, LSD, and mushrooms, that it’s helpful or not helpful. I can see how easy it would be to get confused about are you being helpful or are you harming someone.
‘I can see how he got that confused in the whole situation of getting ketamine and thinking “I’m helping him, maybe this is a healing thing.” I don’t see him intentionally doing anything harmful.’
The screenwriter said Iwamasa was a salaried employee of Chapin’s, helping out the Hollywood manager’s clients including herself as an assistant and eventually as a junior manager.
But as Chapin, 74, wound down his practice in 2022, Iwamasa was left increasingly relying on his employment with Perry to make ends meet.
Doug Chapin was rarely pictured in Hollywood. He attended the premiere of Man on the Moon in 1999 with Carol Kane, who appeared in his 1979 movie When A Stranger Calls
Chapin talks with Angela Bassett during filming of the Tina Turner biopic What’s Love Got To Do With It
Perry died in his hot tub. ‘His death was Doug’s final straw of not wanting to do this work anymore,’ Lanier told DailyMail.com
Perry was buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Los Angeles on November 2 2023
He was listed as a producer on the 1979 movie When a Stranger Calls and the 1993 Tina Turner biopic What’s Love Got to Do With It.
He would not discuss his reasons for leaving Tinseltown when contacted by DailyMail.com.
In Perry’s final months in 2023, Iwamasa was acting as a live-in assistant, chauffeuring the actor and attending to his daily needs.
According to prosecutors, this included buying vials of fraudulently obtained or black-market ketamine for Perry.
The Department of Justice said in a press release that Iwamasa pleaded guilty on August 7 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death.
He admitted to ‘repeatedly injecting Perry with ketamine without medical training, including performing multiple injections on Perry on October 28, 2023 – the day Perry died,’ the DOJ said.
‘I was really shocked. Kenny has always been someone who has gone the extra mile to be helpful. Like if you want a hotdog from this place I’ll go get it for you,’ Lanier said.
Perry had ketamine injected into him multiple times the day he died in October 2023
The screenwriter said that Chapin previously believed Perry was winning in his battle with addiction.
‘He’d written this book, he’d been on the circuit talking about how he can help people. So I think it was probably a shock to everyone that he had hidden this other addiction,’ she said.
‘As far as Doug Chapin is concerned, he is the most ethical, conscientious manager. If he had known this was going down, he would have stepped in and done something. He is a very ethical guy. I don’t think anyone knew.’
Lanier – whose screenwriting credits include What’s Love Got To Do With It, Mariah Carey’s Glitter and The Mod Squad – said her manager shouldered arranging Perry’s affairs in the wake of the actor’s shocking death.
‘Everyone left it up to Doug to do the memorial, write the funeral speech, call the coroner. He did it all,’ she said.
Perry’s former live-in assistant Kenneth Iwamasa pleaded guilty in August to helping purchase and inject Perry with ketamine. Jasveen Sangha who police have dubbed ‘the Ketamine Queen’ is also charged in the Friends star’s death
Physicians Dr. Mark Chavez (left) and Dr. Salvador Plasencia were also arrested
Lanier said Chapin also played a major role in Perry’s 2022 book, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing.
‘I know that when he wrote his book, Doug basically wrote it,’ she said. ‘Doug is a brilliant literary guy. I write two or three scripts a year for studios. He’d read everything I wrote and have the most perfect feedback.
‘I just got the sense, when he said “we” have been working on this book.’
