14 July: Cory Monteith, the handsome young actor who shot to fame in the hit TV series Glee but was beset by addiction struggles so fierce that he once said he was lucky to be alive, was found dead in a hotel room, police said. He was 31.
Monteith, who played the character Finn Hudson on the Fox TV series about a high school glee club, was found dead in his room on the 21st floor of the Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel on Vancouver’s waterfront, police say.
Deputy Police Chief Doug Lepard said there was no indication of foul play. Monteith’s body was found by hotel staff after he missed his check-out time, Lepard said.
“We do not have a great deal of information as to cause of death,” Coroner Lisa Lapointe said.
Lepard said Monteith had been out with people earlier and that those people are being interviewed.
“I have no words! My heart is broken,” Dot-Marie Jones, who plays football coach Shannon Beiste on Glee, said in a post on her Twitter account Saturday night. She called Monteith a “hell of a friend” and an “amazing” man.
“What an absolutely tragic loss of a very talented young man,” tweeted Zooey Deschanel, star of another Fox show, New Girl.
Fox and the producers of Glee, including 20th Century Fox Television, called him an exceptional performer “and an even more exceptional person. He was a true joy to work with and we will all miss him tremendously.”
“We are in shock and mourning this tragic loss,” his representatives at Viewpoint Public Relations in Los Angeles said in a statement.
In April, Monteith admitted himself to a treatment facility for “substance addiction” and asked for privacy as he took steps toward recovery, a representative said at the time.
Lea Michele, his Glee co-star and real-life girlfriend, told People magazine that she loved and supported him and was proud he was seeking help.
It was not Monteith’s first time in rehab. He received treatment when he was 19 and had previously talked about his addiction struggles, saying he had a serious problem and took just “anything and everything.”
He told Parade magazine in 2011 that he was “lucky to be alive.”
Monteith, who turned 31 on May 11, starred in Glee as a high school football player who puts his status and popularity at risk to join the glee club and its outcast members.
The show, with its pop music-based song-and-dance numbers and high-profile guest stars including Gwyneth Paltrow, became an immediate hit and made stars of its relatively unknown cast.
On his Twitter account, Monteith described himself as “tall, awkward, Canadian, actor, drummer, person.”
According to his biography on Fox’s website, Monteith was born in Calgary, Alberta, and moved to Vancouver Island as a child. Before turning to acting, he held a variety of jobs including Wal-Mart greeter, school bus driver, roofer and cab driver.
Monteith’s TV credits included roles on the series Kaya and Kyle XY and guest appearances on Smallville, Supernatural, Stargate, Flash Gordon and Interns. His film credits included Final Destination 3, The Invisible, Deck the Halls and Whisper. (AP)
