GLEE STAR DEAD AT 31
Monteith had struggled with drugs for years prior to being found dead at 31 in hotel room
Body of actor Cory Monteith found in Vancouver hotel room
VANCOUVER The death of Glee star Cory Monteith in a Vancouver hotel room Saturday represents a “teaching moment” for parents of the show’s young fans.
Dr. Christopher Schneider, assistant professor of sociology at the University of B.C. Okanagan campus, said as online tributes pour in for the Victoria-raised star, parents need to step in to provide context and reflection to the young celebrity’s death.
“This narrative existed prior to social media, but in some ways it’s exacerbated by social media,” said Schneider. He added every modern generation has lost a young idol, whether it’s James Dean, Janis Joplin or Kurt Cobain, which provides an opportunity to relate to kids making sense of a similar situation.
What’s different with Monteith’s death in the age of Twitter and Facebook, Schneider said, is that young people are bombarded with quick hits of information, misinformation and speculation that can oversimplify issues such as addiction, substance abuse and death.
“When you look at something like Twitter, 140 characters, or a Facebook post, generally speaking we don’t find people posting lengthy narratives or manifestos on their Facebook page,” he said. “So what this does is sort of confine the space in which we can then seek to understand or present or represent what it is that happened.”
Police still aren’t sure what happened in the case of Monteith’s death, which was discovered Saturday afternoon when he missed his checkout time at Vancouver’s Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel.
The 31-year-old had been out with friends Friday night but had returned to his hotel room alone, according to surveillance footage. Police have not released a cause of death pending a coroner’s investigation, but Monteith’s history as a troubled teen who battled drug and alcohol abuse and his voluntary admittance to a rehabilitation program in March of this year has fuelled speculation he may have died of an overdose.
Psychiatrist and author Dr. Shimi Kang said regardless of whether substance abuse was involved, parents can use Monteith’s death as an opportunity to talk to kids about drug and alcohol addiction.
In a time of perfectionism in celebrity culture, Monteith was a rare example who spoke publicly about his struggle with addiction, Kang said.
“One of the things kids today aren’t hearing enough of is vulnerability ... and I think Cory’s story is an amazing story because he did show vulnerability and he did kind of own up and he was doing the right things,” she said.
But even so, the young star’s story is one that demonstrates that “for a lot of people life is a struggle,” and that it’s OK to seek help.
Born in Calgary and raised in Victoria, Monteith went public about his history with drugs and alcohol after reaching stardom as Finn Hudson on Glee, the wildly popular Fox TV show set to begin filming its fifth season this year.
In a 2011 interview. Monteith said he was “lucky to be alive” after a tumultuous adolescence that saw him drinking and smoking pot by age 13, drop out of school at 16 and forced into rehab after friends and family held an intervention at 19.