Former 'Glee' Actor Mark Salling Was 'Devout Christian' Before Suicide Over Child Porn

Former "Glee" actor Mark Salling was discovered dead from an apparent suicide in Los Angeles on Tuesday. The Los Angeles Police Department said Salling was found dead at about 8:50 a.m. Tuesday outside in the northeast San Fernando Valley in an apparent suicide by hanging. Sailing was once a "devout Christian" prior to his arrest for child pornography in 2015.  He was 35 years-old.

He was known for his role as Noah "Puck" Puckerman on the television series Glee.

Stephi Duckula, president and founder of the Echo Park Ornithology Club in Los Angeles, told People magazine that Salling was one of the first members of the club when she started it 10 years ago and she had no idea that he was a star at the time. "I didn't even know he was an actor when I met him," she said. "I just knew he really enjoyed playing music. I went to see his band play a few times, and he just genuinely enjoyed playing music and playing with birds. I knew he was a very devout Christian when I met him, and he also liked playing Frisbee golf. He liked being in the outdoors and doing things like that." 

Salling's death came just a month before he was to be sentenced to prison for possession of child pornography. He was arrested in December 2015 after LAPD's Internet Crimes Against Children unit obtained a search warrant for his home in Sunland, California. Federal investigators say they found more than 25,000 images and 600 videos depicting child pornography on computers and thumb drives that belonged to Salling. The content depicted children as young as 3 years old being abused, according to court documents. 

"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," Salling's attorney, Michael J. Proctor, said in an email to The Associated Press.

Proctor didn't discuss the cause of death, but said the actor's family appreciated the support it is receiving and asked that a request for privacy be respected.

The darkly handsome actor had appeared in only a handful of projects before his breakout role in "Glee," the popular Fox TV series about students in a high school glee club and their circle of family and friends. It aired from 2009-15.

Earlier credits included 1996's "Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering," a 1999 guest role on the Chuck Norris series "Walker, Texas Ranger" and a part in the 2014 TV movie "Rocky Road."

A singer-songwriter as well as actor, he released two albums: "Smoke Signals" in 2008 and "Pipe Dreams" in 2010.

 

 

 

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