Morgan Fairchild, who played Matthew Perry’s “Friends” TV mom, Nora Tyler Bing, has received messages of support from fans after the actor’s untimely death.
“I was so touched because to a lot of the world thought of me as Chandler’s mom,” Fairchild said on Wednesday’s “Today” show.
“So I was receiving a lot of the condolences too,” she continued. “And it was very touching to see how many lives he touched [where] people really thought he was their friend … and identified with him.”
She added: “He has left a lasting legacy.”
Perry died Oct. 28 at the age of 54. His body was discovered in the hot tub of his L.A. home of an apparent drowning. However, a cause of death has yet to be determined.
Fairchild was on “Today” to promote her upcoming Lifetime movie, “Ladies of the ’80s: A Divas Christmas,” co-starring Nicollette Sheridan, Donna Mills, Loni Anderson and Linda Gray.
“I always remember Matthew when I first met him because when they offered me the part I had only played mothers of teenagers,” Fairchild recalled on the NBC morning show. “Suddenly they are offering me [the part of] a mother of a grown man.”
“I thought the show had potential,” she said. “It wasn’t a big hit yet.”
Fairchild, who appeared on five episodes of “Friends,” reminisced about how, when she first arrived on the set, she encountered Perry and his boyish enthusiasm.
“Matthew comes bounding toward me with the big puppy dog energy he always had and said, ‘You won’t remember me but I used to hang out on the ‘Flamingo Road’ set with you,’” she said.
“I said, ‘You did?’ And he said, ‘John Bennett Perry is my father who played the sheriff.’
And I said, ‘That little kid was you?’ I guess I am old enough to play [your mother!]”
Perry was laid to rest in the Forest Lawn cemetery in Hollywood Hills, which is located across from where “Friends” filmed for 10 years at Warner Bros.
The “Odd Couple” star was remembered by his cast and loved ones at a private funeral service on Nov. 3.
“We are all so utterly devastated by the loss of Matthew. We were more than just cast mates. We are a family,” Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer and Matt LeBlanc said in a joint statement after his passing. “There is so much to say, but right now we’re going to take a moment to grieve and process this unfathomable loss.”