DEATH OF NAYA RIVERA LATEST TRAGEDY FOR SHOW’S CAST AND CREW
THE bouncy FOX musical comedy series “Glee” delighted fans, but the high spirits on-screen could never mask the dark tragedies that continue to haunt its cast and crew.
The latest victim of the show’s curse was actress Naya Rivera, 33, who played gay cheerleader Santana Lopez. She disappeared on July 8 during a boating trip with her four-year-old son. Her body was found five days later.
Here are other blows that have struck the hit show, which aired from
2009 to 2015.
Born in Alberta, Canada, Cory Monteith rocketed to stardom as the sweet-natured quarterback Finn Hudson. But he hid a dark secret — he’d struggled with substance abuse since he was a teen! “I had a serious problem. Anything and everything, as much as possible,” he confessed in a June 2011 interview.
After completing a stint in rehab, Cory was found dead of a heroin and alcohol overdose on July 13, 2013, in a Vancouver hotel room. He was just 31.
His devastated co-star and real-life girlfriend, Lea Michele, said: “I feel like, for me personally,
On-screen,
Mark Salling played hot-tempered Noah “Puck” Puckerman, but he was even more troubled off-screen. The actor was sued in 2013 for sexual battery by exgirlfriend Roxanne Gorzela and settled for $2.7 million. Then, in May 2016, he was indicted on federal charges of receiving and possessing kiddie porn. Rather than face four to seven years behind bars, Salling hanged himself in January 2018 after pleading guilty.
He was 35.
The show was rocked again when cast member Becca Tobin’s boyfriend, Matt Bendik, 35, was found dead of a reported heart attack in 2014. It was reported his shocking death was brought on by stress over his successful and expanding business. “He was a great guy, totally clean, didn’t do drugs. He and Becca were madly in love and talked marriage and having a family,” a source said at the time. “It’s very sad because Becca was so in love. She is inconsolable.”
Angeles County Coroner. Originally from Georgia, Nancy was the daughter of Julia’s mother, Betty Lou, and her former stepfather, Michael Motes.