Jennifer Aniston Pays Tribute to ‘Father Figure’ James Burrows After TV Icon’s Death

Jennifer Aniston is mourning the death of legendary TV director James Burrows.

“Oh boy … 💔Papa Burrows. The hardest thing about writing this is that you spent a lifetime making people feel loved, and now it feels impossible to put all of that love into a few paragraphs,” Aniston, 57, wrote via Instagram on Saturday, June 20. “He called us his ‘kids’ —  ‘Where are the kids?’ ‘Let’s see if the kids can make the joke work.’ No pressure. ❤️”

Burrows died on Friday, June 19, after a brief undisclosed illness at age 85. James is survived by his wife, Debbie Easton Burrows, and their four kids.

“His own incredible children were generous enough to share him with all of us who were lucky enough to experience his unicorn presence,” Aniston added on Saturday. “He was a father figure to me. He always checked in on me. He worried about me, celebrated me, taught me, guided me and held me through the hardest times and the best of times. He spoiled us rotten.”

She continued, “Most of all, he taught us — the kids — how important it is to love and respect one another. To take care of each other. To have each other’s backs and support each other, no matter what. And we did just that.”

Burrows, who co-created Cheers, also directed numerous Friends episodes during the late-90s, early-aughts TV series’ heyday. Aniston, for her part, notably starred on the sitcom as Rachel Green, opposite Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, David Schwimmer and Matthew Perry. (Perry died in 2023 of an accidental ketamine overdose. He was 54.)

“On that show, [the test audience ratings] was through the roof,” Burrows said on the “Conan Needs a Friend” podcast in 2022, hinting Friends would end up a massive hit. “They loved those characters.”

He added, “I [directed] the first, I think, three or four [episodes] and there’s a story about me taking the cast to Vegas because I knew there was something special about this show. You know that happened on Will & Grace, that happened on Cheers. You can sense, in doing the shows, whether the audience reacts to it and I knew then and there how good that show was.”

As for Aniston, she will always hold her memories of Burrows dear.

 “I miss your voice. I miss your laugh. I miss your brilliance,” she concluded in her social media tribute. “Wherever you are, I hope someone is asking, ‘Where are the kids?’ ❤️.”