James Michael Tyler, actor best known for his role as Gunther on Friends, died on Sunday morning. He was 59 years old.
Tyler's death puts an end to his years-long battle with cancer. The actor revealed in June that he was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer in September 2018. When he broke the news during his June appearance on The Today Show, he revealed that treatments for ongoing hormone therapy worked for a while, but things changed during the height of the COVID pandemic in 2020.
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The cancer mutated and left him partially paralyzed from the waist down. That's why Tyler, who attended the Friends reunion, appeared remotely. He said during his Today appearance a month later that actor David Schwimmer knew, along with the producers, but was intentionally left out of the meeting.
"I didn't want it to be like, 'Oh, Gunther has cancer,' you know what I mean?" he said during the interview.
Over the 10 years, from 1994 to 2004, Tyler appeared in 148 episodes of Friends - well over half of the 236 that span the full series. He played Gunther, manager of the Central Perk coffee shop, where the main cast spent much of their time.
Gunther has made regular appearances on the show and has been involved in some of the story arcs, including his unrequited love for Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston).
Tyler is survived by his wife, Jennifer Carno. The two got married in 2017.
