Don’t Stop Believin’: In Memory of Cory Monteith

Cory Monteith Meets Fans At Westfield Sydney  wikimedia commons

He’s known as the football star turned glee club singer on the hit show Glee.          

But his life was more troubled and more astonishing than his TV persona.

By 13 he was into drugs, by 16 he had dropped out of high school, and by 19 he was in rehab.

But somehow he went from a job as a Wal-Mart greeter to star of a hit show that features music and dancing, without any music or dancing experience. His audition tape consisted of him playing the drums—with pencils on Tupperware. (You can see him reprise a bit of it on the Ellen DeGeneresshow.)

He told DeGeneres that on the way to the live interview, he listened to the cast version of the Broadway show Rent, and also listened to Billy Joel albums.  Joel’s song “Honesty” was the song he performed.

He was found dead in his hotel room early on Saturday, July 13.

The police haven’t released the cause of death, but early reports are that not foul play seems to be involved. He had recently gone back into rehab, and it seems likely that a drug overdose killed him

Popular entertainment is full of tales of undead villains, but drugs are the real vampires and zombies, possessing people—even the very talented and very young—until they are destroyed.

For a look at better times, here some of Monteith’s best-known pieces. They are available for download on Freegal.