FANS MOURN FRIENDS STAR
LOS ANGELES: James Michael Tyler, the actor known for portraying the beloved coffee shop worker Gunther on Friends, has died at the age of 59 after a long battle with prostate cancer.
The actor’s representative confirmed the sad news to TMZ, which reported that Tyler died peacefully in his Los Angeles home on Sunday morning, local time.
“The world knew him as Gunther – ‘the seventh Friend’ – from the hit series, but Michael’s loved ones knew him as an actor, musician, cancer-awareness advocate and loving husband,” Tyler’s family said.
The New York Post said Tyler had shocked fans when he revealed in June that he was battling stage four prostate cancer that had left him paralysed below the waist and unable to attend the highly anticipated Friends reunion in person.
“I’ve been dealing with that diagnosis for almost the past three years. It’s stage four late-stage cancer – so eventually, you know, it’s gonna probably get me,” he said on The Today Show.
As Gunther, the worker at the coffee shop Central Perk who had a crush on Jennifer Aniston’s character Rachel, Tyler appeared in more than 150 episodes of the series.