“Friends” alum James Michael Tyler, who played lovesick Central Perk barista Gunther on the NBC sitcom, has died of prostate cancer, four months after he revealed his diagnosis. He was 59.
The actor revealed in June that he had stage 4 prostate cancer, saying at the time, “It’s gonna probably get me.” He’d been in treatment for three years at that point, he said.
Tyler’s Central Perk barista Gunther was madly – and unrequitedly – in love with Jennifer Aniston’s character, Rachel Green, throughout all 10 seasons of the beloved series that aired from 1994 to 2004. Tyler appeared on 150 of the 236 episodes of the show.
Tyler had been diagnosed in 2018 and received various treatments, he told “Today” in June, but a missed follow-up appointment during the global pandemic had given the disease an opportunity to mutate and spread to his bones.
He became paraplegic and then went public to educate people and possibly save lives, he said.
“Though he’s wheelchair bound, he’s very mobile,” his friend and manager Toni Benson told People. “He has the most amazing attitude.”
Tyler tearfully told “Today” that he wished he “would have listened” to his wife and gotten “gone in earlier” for his first prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test, which is what detected the disease when he was 56.
“Next time you go in for just a basic exam or yearly checkup, please ask your doctor for a PSA test,” he said. “Caught early, [prostate cancer is] 99% treatable.”
Tyler appeared virtually on the “Friends” reunion earlier this year, before revealing his diagnosis.
The actor died at home on Sunday morning, his rep told TMZ.
