The Tragedy Of Cory Monteith Explained

Cory Monteith was an up-and-coming 27-year-old Canadian actor when he was cast in "Glee," a musical teen dramedy that debuted in 2009 on the Fox network. The show became an instant smash, garnering legions of fans — dubbed "Gleeks" — who sent ratings soaring while recordings of songs appearing on the show regularly topped the iTunes music charts. 

Suddenly, Monteith and his co-stars became celebrities, and his character — musically inclined high school football quarterback Finn Hudson — quickly became a fan favorite. As the years passed, "Glee" continued to be a durable television hit that cemented itself within pop culture. Live musical tours in 2010 and 2011, for example, proved to be wildly successful; the 2011 "Glee" tour, in fact, grossed a staggering $44 million to become one of the most successful tours of the year.

Eventually, life imitated art when Monteith and Lea Michele — who played Rachel Berry, his character's love interest — began dating in real life. From the outside looking in, it certainly appeared that Monteith had it all: fame, fortune, a loving relationship, and a bright future waiting to be written. Sadly, that was not to be. In July 2013, at the height of his success, Monteith was found dead in a Vancouver hotel room. There have been many things we learned about actors after they died, and he was no exception. For an exploration of how it all went so wrong, read on to have the tragedy of Cory Monteith explained.

Cory Monteith grew up in Victoria, on Canada's West Coast. His childhood was turbulent; his mother and father divorced when he was just 7. As a result, he and his older brother, Shaun, were raised by his mother, Ann McGregor. "I didn't have an easy run," he said of his childhood in a 2010 interview with Maclean's. "There were a lot of negative things going on."

His parents' split was a bitter one, and Monteith's father, Joe Monteith, became a non-presence in his life. In fact, Monteith had become completely estranged from his father since the age of 12. Monteith's father, however, claimed that wasn't the full story, telling People that he made efforts to see his sons, which his ex-wife continually rebuffed. "One year, she even sent back the Christmas presents that I had sent to the boys," he recalled. 

It was Monteith's fame from "Glee" that ultimately led father and son to reconnect. After having no communication whatsoever for more than a decade, Joe reached out to his son via social media. "It was incredibly gratifying to be able to reconnect with somebody that I had no connection with for so many years," Monteith explained during an appearance on "George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight." "I look at it as one of the best experiences that has come from this whole explosion."

As a child, Cory Monteith demonstrated a keen intelligence and learned to read quite early. "My mom read to me from a young age," the actor once told the Times-Colonist. "I'd take encyclopedias to bed and read until I went to sleep." Able to read at a fourth-grade level by the age of five, Monteith was initially a solid student when he first started attending school. By age 13, however, education had drifted far down on his list of priorities. He began hanging out with a rough crowd and regularly played hooky. "You have to really look to get into trouble in Victoria, but I was industrious," he recalled when interviewed by GQ. "Skipping school. Drinking. All that kind of crap. Things started off innocent like that." 

After being kicked out of one school, he'd be sent to another, a pattern that repeated itself more than a dozen times until he wound up in a program for troubled teens. "I burned a lot of bridges," he told Parade. "I was out of control."

As Monteith grew older, he began smoking marijuana and experimenting with other drugs. Over time, his drug use expanded exponentially. "Anything and everything, as much as possible," he said of that period in his life. "I had a serious problem."

By the time he entered the ninth grade, actually making it to class was a rare occurrence for Cory Monteith. "I don't think I was ever physically in a high school, to be honest," he told Maclean's. By that point, Monteith didn't envision a future for himself that would require a high school diploma and decided to drop out. "High school wasn't my thing," he explained to the Times-Colonist in 2009. "I wanted to be a hooligan."

According to Monteith, he wound up achieving that goal, embarking on a life of petty crime and thumbing his nose at authority. "I had such a wayward youth," he admitted in a 2011 interview with the Times-Colonist. "I got in a lot of trouble as a kid."

He eventually entered the workforce, but it was a far cry from the Hollywood glamor he would later experience. Among his various jobs were driving a cab, greeting customers at a Walmart, roofing houses, washing cars, telemarketing, and even serving as a "secret shopper" for 7-11. 

By his late teens, Cory Monteith's drug use continued to escalate to the point that those who knew him had grown increasingly worried. He was 19 when his mother and some friends staged an intervention. That was the first — but not last — time he entered rehab. Sadly, it did not take. "I did the stint but then went back to doing exactly what I left off doing," Monteith told Parade.

It wasn't long after that, however, that he experienced a moment in his life that changed everything. "I stole a significant amount of money from a family member," he recalled, revealing that he'd come to recognize that he knew he'd get found out. "It was a cry for help," he explained. When confronted about his crime, he confessed. 

He was given a choice: he could either get sober, or the victim of his crime would contact the police and press charges, which would likely spell jail time for Monteith. At that point, Monteith realized that he'd hit bottom and decided the time had finally come to take control of his life. "I was done fighting myself," he recalled. "I finally said, 'I'm gonna start looking at my life and figure out why I'm doing this.'"

After getting clean, Cory Monteith began working with an acting coach, who immediately recognized his innate ability. After just a few weeks, he packed his bags and headed to Vancouver, where he began auditioning. Early roles included made-for-TV B-movies such as "Kraken: Tentacles of the Deep," which, along with a few other minor parts, eventually led him to an audition for "Glee." Despite the fact that he wasn't a singer, he was cast as quarterback Finn Hudson and became an overnight sensation.  

Becoming famous can be a difficult thing to cope with for an actor, particularly when it comes instantaneously. That was at the heart of "The Price of Glee," a three-part documentary that aired in 2022 on the Investigation Discovery channel. "The bigger the show went, the smaller their worlds become," one interview subject stated in the documentary, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. 

According to an unidentified friend, Monteith struggled with his newfound celebrity. "Fame was hard for him," the friend told People. "It was something he knew he deserved, but somehow he never quite knew how to handle."

In addition to adjusting to his new life as a Hollywood celebrity, "Glee" was also the most intense acting job that Cory Monteith had ever had. As anyone who's seen the show will understand, "Glee" is not a typical gig for a TV actor, with Monteith and other members of the cast entering a recording studio to record each episode's songs, and then perform them on camera accompanied by dance routines staged by a choreographer — in addition to regular old acting. Given that Monteith had zero experience with either singing or dancing prior to "Glee," he understandably faced a lot of pressure to get it all right.

During production on the show, Monteith and his co-stars typically worked 70-hour weeks. Interviewed for "The Price of Glee," Justin Neill, Monteith's former roommate, confirmed that while Monteith was grateful for the big break that "Glee" had given him, it also took a toll on him. As Neill stated, via the New York Post, "there did definitely get to a point where he was burned out."

At the same time, the few hours that he did have away from the set were consumed with evading tabloid photographers and unhinged stalkers. "By the end of the second season, he didn't have his private time, and he was ... probably one of the most private people I knew," Neill added.

It started slowly, but once Cory Monteith began self-medicating in order to cope with the stress of stardom, old habits began to resurface. Producers and actors on "Glee" began to notice a change in Monteith, and discovered that he'd been using heroin. By early 2013, their concerns had grown to the point that they joined forces to stage an intervention. "It wasn't met with resistance ... He was always so grateful and aware of how fortunate he was," a source told TMZ of Monteith's response to the intervention. "The decision was to best help our friend. The needs of the show fell second to his well-being."

In March 2013, People reported that Monteith had voluntarily entered rehab in order to deal with an unspecified "substance addiction." In a statement, Monteith's rep said, "He graciously asks for your respect and privacy as he takes the necessary steps towards recovery."

After about a month of treatment, Monteith exited rehab. While the intensely private actor wasn't thrilled with the press coverage that his latest attempt at recovery garnered, he also knew it was more than necessary. "He was super committed to getting sober," a source told E! News. "He would say this was his last chance."

While fans assumed that Cory Monteith was embracing his newfound sobriety after a month in rehab, the truth emerged in tragic fashion during a trip to Vancouver. On July 13, less than three months after completing treatment, Monteith was found dead in his room at the Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel, discovered by hotel staff who entered his room when he didn't check out as planned. He was 31. 

Director Adam Shankman, who'd helmed several episodes of "Glee," told CNN that he'd spoken with Monteith on the morning that he'd died. According to Shankman, Monteith was in good spirits and was even making plans to go jet-skiing in California. "I had several interactions with him yesterday where he said that he was doing amazing," said Shankman, who was still in shock about Monteith's death. "He even said I am feeling fantastic. I'm like everybody else, really devastated and confused by what happened."

Acting Chief Constable Doug LePard of the Vancouver Police Department told reporters that foul play had been ruled out. He also revealed that an autopsy would be conducted; while not everyone knows what happens during an autopsy, in Monteith's case, the purpose was to determine the cause of death. 

A Vancouver medical examiner performed an autopsy on Cory Monteith shortly after his body was found. Sadly, the results confirmed fears that he'd relapsed, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that his death was the result of an overdose of heroin and alcohol. As BBC News reported, the coroner confirmed that there'd been no foul play, and that Monteith's death had been "a most tragic accident."

Eventually, everyone came to learn what the last few hours of Monteith's life were like. As for what investigators found at Monteith's death scene, the Globe and Mail reported that the coroner's report offered some grim details about the actor's final moments. Drug paraphernalia — including a spoon containing drug residue and a hypodermic needle — was found near his body. As coroner Claire Thompson wrote in the report, Monteith was "found in a collapsed position on the hotel-room floor," and had been there for a few hours before his body was found. Also found in the room were two empty champagne bottles.

There were other disturbing details discovered in Monteith's autopsy report. "Alcohol and heroin are both central-nervous-system and respiratory depressants," continued the report, which also noted that morphine and codeine were found in his blood. "In combination, these drugs can cause sedation and death." 

One key line in the coroner's report revealed a grim irony: Cory Monteith's stint in rehab may have contributed to his fatal overdose. As the report stated, via the Globe and Mail, habitual heroin users gradually build up a tolerance to the drug. "After a period of cessation from opioid drug use, a previously tolerated drug-concentration level may become toxic and fatal," the report noted.

That was also the conclusion reached by an episode of a TV documentary series — "Autopsy: The Last Hours of ..." — focusing on Monteith's death. "Fresh from his month in rehab, Cory has lost the tolerance he built up after his long use. If drug users start back on the same drugs on the same level before they started rehab, that can result in toxic and fatal consequences," Dr. Jason Payne-James, a forensic physician, said in the episode (via The Mirror).  "The dose Cory was used to three months earlier would now have a much greater effect, suppressing his central nervous system that controls his breathing."

In addition, Payne-James explained that the alcohol that Monteith had consumed prior to the heroin entering his bloodstream was also a contributing factor. "Within seconds after injecting the heroin the effects of these two drugs combined to suppress his ability to breathe," he said, offering his conclusion that it wasn't just the heroin that caused his death, but combining that drug with alcohol that proved to be fatal.

After more than a decade of estrangement, Cory Monteith and his father had reconnected. They were still in the process of repairing the rift in their relationship at the time of Monteith's tragic death. "It is just ripping my insides out and tearing me apart," the late star's father, Joe Monteith, told People of losing his son just as they were getting to know each other.

He offered even further insight into his late son's issues with heroin, revealing that a decade or so earlier, he'd gone "code blue" after overdosing on heroin, and nearly lost his life. "He got a shot to his heart to bring him back, and he was told at that time to use no drugs of any kind because you had your one shot," he recalled. "I lost my son," he added. "He should have known not to touch that drug again."

Joe Monteith died in May 2025, nearly 12 years after the death of his son. In a strange twist of fate, the "Glee" star's mother, Ann McGregor, died the following month. In 2018, McGregor spoke with People about losing her son, lamenting how much his death continued to haunt her. "I still can't pick up the pieces. My world totally stopped," she said. "And I'm a different person than I was before."