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Jennifer Aniston has led the tributes to her Friends co-star, James Michael Tyler, after the 59-year-old actor who played the iconic role of Gunther passed away following a private battle with prostate cancer. In an emotional Instagram post on Monday, October 25th, the 52-year-old actress shared a video of a scene from the final season of the show, in which Tyler’s character confesses his undying (and sadly unrequited) love to her character, Rachel.
Aniston also added a picture of Tyler, which was taken on the set of the show. “Friends would not have been the same without you,” The Morning Show actress captioned the post. “Thank you for the laughter you brought to the show and to all of our lives. You will be so missed. #JamesMichaelTyler,” she added, finishing things off with a broken heart emoji.
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According to a statement released by Tyler’s manager, the actor passed away peacefully in his home in Los Angeles on Sunday, October 24th. “If you met him once you made a friend for life. He is survived by his wife, Jennifer Carno, the love of his life,” the statement began, before going on to say that the actor “bravely” went public with his cancer diagnosis in an attempt to encourage early testing to try and save lives. “Wanting to help as many people as possible, he bravely shared his story and became a campaigner for those with a prostate to get a blood test as early as 40 years old.”
Tyler told the world about his stage 4 prostate cancer diagnosis in June, following his in-person absence from the Friends reunion the month before. Instead of an in-person appearance, he chose to briefly appear via video link due to his ill health; and also, to quote him directly, because he didn’t want to “bring a downer” on the highly-anticipated reunion show. “I wanted to be a part of that, and initially I was going to be on the stage, at least, with them, and be able to take part in all the festivities,” Tyler told Today. “It was bittersweet, honestly. I was very happy to be included. It was my decision not to be a part of that physically and make an appearance on Zoom, basically, because I didn’t wanna bring a downer on it, you know? I didn’t want to be like, ‘Oh, and by the way, Gunther has cancer.'”
Aniston wasn’t the only ex-Friends star to pay her respects to the actor. Courteney Cox, who played the part of Monica Geller also shared an emotional tribute, writing, "The size of gratitude you brought into the room and showed every day on set is the size of the gratitude I hold for having known you." Phoebe Buffay actress Lisa Kudrow added: "James Michael Tyler, we will miss you. Thank you for being there for us all."
Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer, who played the roles of Joey Tribbiani and Ross Geller respectively, also made comments on social media, with Matt writing, "We had a lot of laughs buddy. You will be missed. RIP my friend." David added: "James, thank you for playing such a wonderful, unforgettable role in Friends and for being such a big hearted gentleman and all around mensch off screen. You will be missed, buddy."
