Thirty-five year old Glee star Mark Salling (Puck) was found dead of an apparent suicide today. According to a statement to EW, his attorney noted, “I can confirm that Mark Salling passed away early this morning. Mark was a gentle and loving person, a person of great creativity, who was doing his best to atone for some serious mistakes and errors of judgment. He is survived by his mother and father, and his brother. The Salling family appreciates the support they have been receiving and asks for their privacy to be respected.”
He portrayed Puck on Glee for six seasons from 2009 through 2015. Prior to his role on the hit TV show, Salling had one-off roles in Walker Texas Ranger and a straight to video version of Children of the Corn.
According to reports in Rolling Stone, Salling was arrested in 2015 for possessing over 50,000 images and video of child pornography and erotica on a personal laptop in addition to a thumb drive 4,000 more images and over 150 videos. Federal documents noted some of the victims were between 3 and 5 years of age. He was indicted in 2016 on two counts of receiving pornography of young girls. In October 2017, he struck a plea deal where he would receive 4-7 years in prison. His sentencing was scheduled for March. The plea deal included Salling to register as a sex offender and pay restitution of $50,000 to each self-identified victim.
Any additional details will be added as they are made available.