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Glee Star Mark Salling Is Dead of Apparent Suicide

The actor’s body was found near his home in Sunland, California.
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Salling photographed at the 15th Annual Trevor Project Benefit in 2013.By Michael Tran/FilmMagic.

Glee star Mark Salling has been found dead at the age of 35. TMZ reports that his death is being considered a suicide, and the possible cause of death is hanging—though no official statement will be made until the actor’s family is notified, according to The Hollywood Reporter, which has also confirmed the news.

In October of last year, Salling pled guilty to charges of possession of child pornography involving a pre-pubescent minor. Media reported at the time that Salling attempted suicide last August before entering the plea. Cosmopolitan reported that according to court documents, “federal investigators found approximately 25,000 still images of child pornography, 600 videos depicting child pornography, and 29,000 images of child erotica, across Salling’s laptop, thumb drive, and another encrypted hard drive. The documents describe examples of content depicting children as young as three years old.”

Salling was arrested in December 2015, but later released on a $20,000 bail; in 2016, he turned himself in to authorities. According to the deal Salling struck, he would have served between four to seven years in prison and would also have been required to register as a sex offender.

Salling was best known for playing the troubled Noah “Puck” Puckerman on the musical dramedy Glee, which ran on Fox from 2009 to 2015. Salling’s death comes less than five years after his Glee co-star Cory Monteith died from a drug overdose in 2013, at the age of 31. In 2014, when asked if an upcoming Glee reunion for the original cast would be healing in the wake of Monteith’s death, Salling told People: “I don’t think there will be any closure. Not yet.”