Photos: @slate_michael / @friends
James Michael Tyler was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer in September 2018. After his diagnosis, Tyler shared his story to encourage others to get screened for prostate cancer as early as 40.
The deadpan yet lovable barista of Friends’s Central Perk, James Michael Tyler a.k.a. Gunther, passed away due to prostate cancer.
According to The New York Times, Tyler’s longtime manager, Toni Benson confirmed the actor’s passing last Sunday (October 25) in his Los Angeles home. His wife, Jennifer Carno, was by his side.
Tyler was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer in September 2018. After his diagnosis, Tyler shared his story to encourage others to get screened for prostate cancer as early as 40.
“The world knew him as Gunther. Michael loved live music, cheering on his Clemson Tigers, and would often find himself in fun and unplanned adventures. If you met him once you made a friend for life,” says Benson in a statement.
In an Instagram post on the official Friends page, Warner Bros. Television said it is mourning the loss of Tyler: “A beloved actor and integral part of our FRIENDS family. Our thoughts are with his family, friends, colleagues and fans.”
Tyler became part of Friends that helped launch the careers of Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer. It debuted on NBC in the fall of 1994, ran for a decade, and had around 25 million to 30 million viewers each week.
Though Tyler was not a main character, he was widely considered to be “the seventh friend” and appeared in 150 episodes.
He played the part of Gunther, a barista at Central Perk, the friends’ hangout, who had a deep crush on Rachel (Aniston’s character), who also worked at the coffee shop.
Before Friends, Tyler was an actual barista at a real-life coffee shop. One day he was asked if he would be interested in being an extra on Friends. For the first season, his character was known as “Coffee Guy.”
Tyler told this story to NYT in 2012: “At the time I was also working as a barista for a place called the Bourgeois Pig, one of the last independent coffee houses in Los Angeles. On the second season, I got a line of dialogue: “Yeah”. That was when David Schwimmer’s character, Ross, asked me if his apartment had stairs.”
Tyler’s last TV appearance was on HBO Max’s Friends: The Reunion which was released last May.
During his virtual appearance via Zoom, Tyler shared about his experience making the show for a decade and how it felt for him to have worked with its six lead stars.
“It was the most memorable 10 years of my life, honestly. I could not have imagined just a better experience. All of these guys were fantastic. It was just a joy to work with them. It felt very, very special.”
Born May 28, 1962, in Winona, Mississippi, Tyler was the youngest of five children, raised by a retired Air Force captain and a homemaker.
He moved to Anderson, South Carolina to live with his sister at age 11 and enrolled at Clemson University as a geology major. He earned a master’s of fine arts from the University of Georgia and moved to Los Angeles after a brief stint of selling cars in Olympia, Washington.
Tyler revealed publicly in June that he had prostate cancer. He told Today that he was surrounded by an “extraordinary” support group and that many people were praying for his health.
“It’s made me, personally, just realize how important every moment is, every day. And fighting. Don’t give up. Keep fighting. Keep yourself as light as possible. And have goals. Set goals. My goal this past year was to see my 59th birthday. I did that, May 28th. My goal now is to help save at least one life by coming out with this news.”
While undergoing treatment, Tyler continued to perform and starred in two short films, The Gesture and the Word and Processing, earning accolades at film festivals, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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Friends’s Gunther, James Michael Tyler, passed away due to prostate cancer
Source: Pinoy Ako News
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