It was announced today that Mark Salling, best known for his portrayal of Noah 'Puck' Puckerman on Ryan Murphy's hit TV series 'Glee', has sadly passed away at the age of 35. TMZ confirmed the actor had committed suicide and that his body was found near his California home on Tuesday 30th January. The news has shook both 'Glee' fans and cast alike, not only because the actor chose to end his own life, but because he was subject to an ongoing criminal investigation which was due to come to a head in March of this year. The actor had been in possession of child pornography and sued for sexual assault in the past.
One of the members of the 'Glee' musical department, Tim Davis, took to Twitter to pay his respects.
Today we lost another #Glee cast member.Yes, he committed crimes against children.Yes, it's horrific. But #MarkSalling was a broken man, no doubt an abuse victim himself. I loved Mark, and am sad when I consider the devastation of his parents. PLEASE withhold your cruel comments.
? Tim Davis (@loudmouthmuch) January 30, 2018
Let me be clear. Having compassion for #MarkSalling in no way minimizes his crimes, nor does it minimize the pain and devastation of the victims of those crimes. I'm just saying stop adding to his family's pain. This was their son. If you're without sin, feel free to cast stones.
? Tim Davis (@loudmouthmuch) January 30, 2018
As expected, the tweets weren't well received with one user claiming "being a 'broken man' does not remove the fact that he had a child pornography collection". "The minute you used the word "but" in your original tweet you minimized (sic) the crime against his victims", continued another. Davis responded to both posts with a "No minimization (sic) of the crime. It was awful. I'm talking about having compassion, and not adding to the vitriol".
Actress, Jane Lynch who portrayed the sometimes antagonist Sue Sylvester in the series retweeted Davis' latest post.
A sad image
Matthew Morrison, on the other hand, couldn't bring himself to use words at this hard time, and instead opted for an Instagram photo of himself with both Salling and the late Cory Monteith (also from 'Glee'), who overdosed back in 2013. Despite the lack of words, the post was still met with distaste.
Morrison, who is known for his role as Will Schuester on 'Glee' accompanied the image with 3 emoticons: an angel, a sad face, and another angel. The order in which the emoticons are placed makes it clear that they correspond to the order in which Monteith, himself and Salling are stood in the photo. The use of the angel emoticon for Salling however, hasn't gone unnoticed by critics who have accused Morrison of grouping Salling with Monteith. The latter struggled with a substance addiction whereas the former committed suicide whilst under investigation.
Despite the hate in the comments, other users have jumped to Morrison's defence, highlighting that the actor worked with Salling and clearly knew another side to him.
