Cory Monteith, a Star of TV’s ‘Glee,’ Is Dead at 31
By DAVE ITZKOFF
Published: July 14, 2013
Cory Monteith, who played an upbeat and outgoing young student and singing coach on the hit Fox musical comedy series “Glee,” was found dead on Saturday in a hotel room in Vancouver, British Columbia. He was 31 and had struggled with substance abuse.
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Mr. Monteith with Lea Michele on the Fox series “Glee.” He had recently undergone treatment for substance abuse.
Mr. Monteith’s body was found in his 21st-floor room at the Fairmont Pacific Rim hotel around noon after he missed his scheduled checkout time, the police said. They said they believed he was alone when he died.
The British Columbia’s coroners service announced on Tuesday that the cause of death was “a mixed drug toxicity, involving heroin and alcohol.”
Mr. Monteith, a 6-foot-3 performer with a youthful countenance and a soft-spoken demeanor who described himself on his personal Twitter page as a “tall, awkward, Canadian, actor, drummer, person,” gained worldwide attention when “Glee” made its debut on the Fox network in 2009.
Mr. Monteith played Finn Hudson, an Ohio high school student and football star who initially had no interest in joining his school’s struggling glee club for fear it would cost him his popularity and social standing.
But once drawn into the singing group, Finn became a crucial member, sharing vocal duties on its signature cover of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’,” and also sharing romantic tensions with his fellow students Rachel (Lea Michele) and Quinn (Dianna Agron). In recent episodes Finn graduated from high school but returned to coach the glee club.
“Glee,” which has finished its fourth season, is one of Fox’s biggest hits of recent years, especially with younger audiences, although its ratings have been dropping for the last two seasons.
A press representative for Fox said on Sunday that production on a new season of “Glee” was scheduled to begin later this month or in early August, and that no decision had been made about how the show might deal with Mr. Monteith’s death.
In March, Mr. Monteith announced that he had checked himself into a treatment center for an unspecified substance addiction. He acknowledged in an interview in 2011 that he had also sought rehabilitation when he was 19.
Cory Allan Michael Monteith was born on May 11, 1982, in Calgary, Alberta, and raised in Victoria, British Columbia, after his parents divorced. He dropped out of school at 16, having attended 16 different schools by that time, and worked at many jobs before winning his first professional acting roles in his early 20s.
Mr. Monteith appeared on television shows like “Stargate Atlantis,” “Supernatural” and “Smallville,” then landed his role on “Glee” with the help of an audition tape on which he sang REO Speedwagon’s 1985 No. 1 hit, the love ballad “Can’t Fight This Feeling.”
The news of Mr. Monteith’s death elicited an outpouring of grief and remembrances from friends and colleagues.
Dot-Marie Jones, a “Glee” co-star, wrote on her Twitter account that Mr. Monteith “was not only a hell of a friend” but an “amazing” man “that I will hold close to my heart forever.”
According to some news reports, Mr. Monteith is survived by his parents and a brother.
In an interview in 2011, Mr. Monteith said that he hoped his struggles with addiction would offer an example to others.
“I don’t want kids to think it’s O.K. to drop out of school and get high, and they’ll be famous actors, too,” he said. “But for those people who might give up: Get real about what you want and go after it.”
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