James Michael Tyler Dies at 59, ‘Friends’ Crew and Co-Stars Mourn Their Colleague
James Michael Tyler, who famously played Gunther in Friends, died yesterday from prostate cancer.
The news was announced last night by his longtime friend and manager Toni Benson, and soon, many of his colleagues from Friends raised their voices to remember him. The ever-present, silent barista from Central Perk, a pivotal place in the show, who had a crush on Jennifer Anniston’s Rachel Green since the beginning, participated in 150 episodes of Friends. He was the most recurring actor not part of the main group.
His prostate cancer was reportedly detected back in 2018, but it wasn’t until June of this year that he made it public. He appeared remotely in this year’s Friends Reunion that aired on HBO Max in May because of his condition.
Friends co-creators Marta Kauffman and David Crane said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter:
“James was a genuinely kind, sweet man. When he started as an extra on Friends, his unique spirit caught our eye and we knew we had to make him a character. He made Gunther’s unrequited love incredibly relatable. Our heart goes out to his wife, Jennifer Carno.”
Jennifer Anniston posted the following tribute on her Instagram account:
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Courtney Cox also remembered him:
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The last female Friend, Lisa Kudrow, mourned the loss too:
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Matt LeBlanc posted the following:
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Gunther was by far one of the most memorable parts of the entire show, a character that in any other actor’s hands could have been an absolute disaster, but James always found a way to balance it all out and deliver a great performance, which was always a crucial yet underappreciated part of every episode he was in.
James Michael Tyler will be missed, but his art lives on.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as authors like Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
