FANS and co-stars have paid tribute to Cory Monteith, the 31-year-old star of the hit TV series Glee, who was found dead in his Vancouver hotel room at the weekend.
Police say there is no sign of foul play and it is understood the actor was alone in his room when he died in the early hours of Saturday. Monteith, who played teen heart-throb Finn Hudson in the Emmy Award-winning series, had struggled with alcohol and drug addiction in the past, and had spent time in rehab in April for substance addiction, The Guardian says.
Monteith's girlfriend and Glee co-star, Lea Michele, is "devastated" by the actor's death, HollywoodLife.com reports.
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The 26-year-old actress met Monteith on the set of the TV series in which she plays Rachel Berry, the star vocalist of the musical society at a fictional high school in Ohio. Berry had an on-again, off-again relationship with Monteith's character, but in real life the actors had been in a relationship for about two years. In January, Michele told a magazine she felt "really settled and happy" for the first time in her life.
A source told HollywoodLife that Michele is "absolutely hysterical and completely inconsolable. She is devastated beyond belief".
Tributes to the Canadian actor were led by Fox, the TV network that produces Glee. Producers, who were expecting Monteith to perform in the fifth series of the show, which is due to air in the US in September, described him as "an exceptional talent and an even more exceptional person". "He was a true joy to work with and we will all miss him tremendously."
Celebrities who paid tribute yesterday included singer Taylor Swift, who briefly dated Monteith in 2010. "Speechless. And for the worst reason," she tweeted.
Meanwhile R&B star Rihanna tweeted: "Cory Monteith, may your spirit be at peace, and may you fly with the angels... Heartbreaking, my prayers are with all of his loved ones!"
The exact cause of Monteith's death has not been ascertained, but an autopsy will be carried out today and the results made public later this week, the Daily Mail reports. A source at the Vancouver Police department told the paper that the autopsy and toxicology tests had been "fastracked" due to the public interest in the case.
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