Glee Actors You May Not Know Passed Away

On "Glee," Cory Monteith played Finn Hudson, an all-American jock with a sensitive side and soothing voice. Finn's on-again, off-again relationship with Lea Michele's Rachel Berry was a centerpiece of the show's dramatic moments, earning the affectionate portmanteau "Finchel" (and the two had an off-screen relationship as well). However, Monteith came to the "Glee" cast with some weighty personal struggles. In a 2011 interview with Parade, the Canadian actor opened up about his struggles with drugs and alcohol, which began when he was just 13 years old. By the time he was 19, Monteith's friends and family organized an intervention, after which Monteith entered rehab for the first time.

Unfortunately, Monteith's demons continued to haunt him throughout his 20s. In March 2013, at the age of 30, Monteith entered rehab, completing the program at the end of April. Then, on July 14, news broke that Monteith was found dead in his Vancouver hotel room. Autopsy results revealed that the actor died of an accidental overdose of heroin and alcohol; codeine and morphine were also found in his blood. The third episode of the fifth season of "Glee," titled "The Quarterback," is dedicated to Monteith.

Jane Lynch is one of only five "Glee" actors to star in a main role for all six seasons of the show. As Sue Sylvester, head coach of William McKinley High School's cheerleading squad, Lynch played the show's villain. Typically clad in a tracksuit, Sylvester stalks the halls of McKinley, instilling fear in both students and staff. Yet despite her edges, Sue also had a soft spot for Becky Jackson, a McKinley student with Down's syndrome, who Sue takes under her wing. Though her affection for Becky seems out of character, viewers eventually learn that Sue has an older sister, Jean, with Down's syndrome.

Robin Trocki, who came to "Glee" with no acting experience, played Jean Sylvester in five episodes throughout Seasons 1 and 2. Trocki died in 2019 from Alzheimer's disease at the age of 63. While not a star of the series, Trocki's involvement with "Glee" helped raise awareness for Down's syndrome.

Billed as "Ancient Librarian," Jean Sincere appeared in three episodes of "Glee" during its first and second seasons. Her role largely consisted of either shushing or glaring at the glee club members as they broke into exuberant songs in her library. However, in Season 1's "Bad Reputation," the librarian responds to a performance of "U Can't Touch This" by suggesting that the club members recreate the song for the Sunday service at her church.

The role of the Ancient Librarian was typical of Sincere's television career, which began at the dawn of the medium in the late 1940s and concluded in 2012 with a guest appearance on "iCarly." A trained stage actress, Sincere made her debut on Broadway in the 1941 production of "Arsenic and Old Lace," and appeared in other shows before touring Europe as part of the USO.

After nearly three decades away from television, Sincere returned to the small screen in a 1985 episode of "Cagney and Lacey" and moved into steady work as a guest player in series like "Newhart," "Murphy Brown," and "Everybody Loves Raymond." She also made occasional forays into feature film work, of which her voice-acting role as the elderly Mrs. Hogenson, whom Bob Parr helps with an insurance claim in "The Incredibles," was the most memorable. Sincere remained active on television and local theater into her ninth decade; she died of natural causes at the age of 93 on April 3, 2013.

Presiding in part over the 2010 Western Ohio Sectionals Championship in Season 2's "Special Education" was Pete Sosnowski, associate director of the state's Department of Motor Vehicles and head judge of the competition. Sosnowski, who announced that New Directions and the Warblers both tied for first place, was played by veteran actor Mike Hagerty.

A Chicago native and member of its famed improv troupe, The Second City, Hagerty began appearing in minor and supporting roles on TV and in movies in the early '80s. A go-to for overworked and easily aggravated blue-collar types, Hagerty — who was also billed as Michael Hagerty or Michael J. Hagerty — played cops, truck drivers, salesmen, and furniture movers on projects ranging from "Nothing in Common" and "Dick Tracy" to "Married... with Children" and "Cheers." By the mid-'90s, Hagerty had moved up to supporting roles, which included his best-known small screen characters: grumpy building super Mr. Treeger on five episodes of "Friends" and the owner of a vintage clothing store who butted heads with Kramer in "Seinfeld."

Hagerty remained active well into the new millennium with recurring roles in "Lucky Louie" and "Brooklyn Nine-Nine," and co-starred in the HBO comedy "Somebody Somewhere." After completing the latter show's first season, Hagerty experienced a seizure due to an adverse reaction to antibiotics and lapsed into a coma; the 67-year-old died at Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on May 5, 2022.

Emmy-winning comic actor Tim Conway joined fellow performing vets Billy Dee Williams and June Squibb for Season 5's "Old Dog, New Tricks," which was penned by cast member Chris Colfer. The episode gave its three guest stars a few moments to shine as residents at a home for retired actors who are producing a stage version of "Peter Pan."

Conway began in regional television in the late 1950s before earning his first break on "The Steve Allen Show." A co-starring role on "McHale's Navy" led to several attempts to craft a TV series around him, but Conway always seemed to fare best as a supporting player; he was a hilarious improviser who frequently reduced his castmates on "The Carol Burnett Show" to hysterics, and teamed with another peerless TV comic, Don Knotts, in a string of '70s features for Walt Disney Pictures. Conway was also an in-demand guest star on numerous series like "Coach" and "30 Rock" (for which he won two additional Emmys) and a popular voice-over actor for animated projects, most notably as Barnacle Boy in "SpongeBob SquarePants."

In 2018, Conway was diagnosed with dementia due to normal pressure hydrocephalus, a condition that causes cerebrospinal fluid to build up in the brain. He died from complications of the condition at the age of 85 in Los Angeles on May 14, 2019.

Patty Duke may be one of the most accomplished faces ever to grace "Glee." She's not just a three-time Emmy Award winner, but an Oscar winner too, for best supporting actress in 1962's "The Miracle Worker," where she played real-life historical figure Helen Keller. She starred in "Valley of the Dolls" a few years later and the thriller "You'll Like My Mother" the following decade. In addition to guest-starring on numerous TV shows throughout her career — everything from "Ben Casey" to "Hawaii Five-O" to "Frasier" — she also had her own TV show, "The Patty Duke Show," in the 1960s.

Throughout the '80s and '90s, Duke made a career out of TV movies, starring in small-screen follow-ups to "The Amityville Horror" and "Rosemary's Baby" as well as a new version of her own classic, "The Miracle Worker." Duke — who guest-starred as Jan in the fourth season "Glee" episode "All or Nothing" — also had an early stint as a music artist, turning out six albums during the '60s, including a few chart-making hit singles like "Don't Just Stand There" and "Say Something Funny."

Acting was also a family business for Duke, who married "Addams Family" star John Astin in 1972. Their son Sean Astin is best known for roles in "The Goonies," "The Lord of the Rings," and "Stranger Things" (and also had a part in NCIS, believe it or not). Duke passed away in 2016 at the age of 69.

The "Glee" episode "Makeover" may be most famous for the first of three appearances by superstar Sarah Jessica Parker, but she's not the episode's only guest star. In addition to Parker is Phyllis Applegate, who appears on the Show Choir Rules Committee as Birdie Lawrence. Unlike Tonita Castro, who got a late start in her acting career, Applegate was showing up on television as far back as 1956, when she debuted with a part in an episode of "The Johnny Carson Show," in the days before he was doing "The Tonight Show."

After her debut, Applegate took some time away from Hollywood but returned a couple of decades later and never left. Late in the 1970s she showed up on "What's Happening!!" and "Mrs. Columbo" before hitting her stride in the 1980s, appearing in episodes of "Hill Street Blues," "Highway to Heaven," "Cagney and Lacey," and "Knight Rider." Though she rarely appeared in the same role more than once, two of the three times she did were on "Any Day Now" and "L.A. Law," where curiously enough her character was named Ida both times. On "My Name is Earl" she played Darnell's grandmother in a trio of episodes.

Towards the end of her career, Applegate appeared in a pair of episodes of "Better Call Saul" as Myrtle, a friend of Goodman's client Irene Landry. On film, she also had roles in "The Arrival," "Big Momma's House" and "Ruthless People." Applegate died at the age of 78 in 2023.

If you love TV sitcoms you probably know Sonya Eddy whether you realize it or not. That's because she had roles in some of history's biggest TV comedies. She made her debut in an episode of "The Drew Carey Show" in 1995 before following with episodes of "Married... with Children," "Martin," and "Family Matters." Perhaps most famously, Eddy played the disgruntled homeless shelter worker who gives Elaine a hard time in the "Seinfeld" episode "The Muffin Tops." Curiously named Rebecca DeMornay (like the actor), Eddy returned to the series in the episode "The Bookstore" as the same character, this time hassling George.

Like Barbara Tarbuck, Eddy might be most recognizable for a long-running recurring role on "General Hospital," where she played head nurse Epiphany Johnson between 2006 and 2022 for a whopping 543 episodes. She even got her own spin-off series of sorts, starring as Johnson in the short-lived "General Hospital: Night Shift," co-starring Kimberly McCullough, Jason Thompson, and Billy Dee Williams. That wasn't her only ongoing role, though — she also starred as Ramona in "Legit" and Tammy in "Those Who Can't." In between she showed up in episodes of "Castle," "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend," and "Adam Ruins Everything."

Before her death, Eddy closed out her career in the TV miniseries "The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey." Sadly, she passed away at just 55 in 2022, due to an infection brought on by a non-emergency surgical procedure.

The role of Bill in the "Glee" installment "The Spanish Teacher" was filled by character actor Roger Keller. Another actor with a brief career on the screen, his first credit is in a 1987 episode of "Cheers," with episodes of "Matlock," "Wings" and "The Nanny" following in the early '90s. Beyond acting, Keller graduated from California State University with a degree in both theater and teaching, and worked for nearly three decades in the law offices of Polk, Scheer and Raphael.

Following appearances on sitcoms like "Murphy Brown," "Caroline in the City," and "Frasier" in the late '90s, Keller took a decade off from acting before returning for one final performance before his passing. That appearance was in "Glee" in 2012, five years before his death from cancer at age 67 in January 2017. Though he never had children of his own, Keller was survived by an ex-wife as well as a large family of nieces, nephews, and cousins.

The "Glee" episode "Special Education" sees the glee club group New Directions facing off in a competition with a choir group called the Hipsters. This group isn't made up young, pony-tailed Brooklynites, though, but older singers who prove that age is just a number. They've come back to complete their high school education, and when they do, they take it upon themselves to enter the choir competition. They make a strong showing, too, performing the song "The Living Years," originally by Mike and the Mechanics. One of their members, old man Bill, was played by actor Edmund L. Shaff.

As it happens, Schaff often played officials of some sort or another. He showed up as a presiding judge in episodes of "Days of Our Lives," "Life Goes On," and "The Practice," while playing Dick Cheney in Comedy Central's "That's My Bush!" and other military officials and politicians in titles like "Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman" "Falcon Crest," and "Malcolm in the Middle." He also often played religious figures, as ministers, preachers, and priests in "Space: Above and Beyond," "Saved by the Bell: Wedding in Las Vegas," and "Quantum Leap." 

Schaff made one more acting appearance after appearing in "Special Education," in an episode of "Modern Family" before his death. He died in June 2023, just a month after celebrating his 88th birthday.

Michael Lerner might be the most experienced actor to appear on "Glee"; while he was never much of a star, he counted nearly 200 credits across television and movies. He had a recurring role in "Glee," playing Sidney Greene, who first appears in the Season 4 episode "Sweet Dreams" and returns in five more episodes. A casting director and producer, Greene oversees the production of "Funny Girl" and seems most interested in discovering bright young talent.  

Some of Lerner's more distinctive appearances included movies, and they ran the gamut — from critically acclaimed dramas like the Coen brothers' "Barton Fink" to schlock box office bombs like 1998's "Godzilla," where he played New York's Mayor Ebert. He'd return to voice the same character in "Godzilla: The Series." It's likely no coincidence that Lerner's resemblance to noted movie critic Roger Ebert may have been exactly why he got the part. He also played Fulton, the tyrannical CEO of Greenway Press and boss of James Caan's Walter Hobbs, in "Elf."

Additionally, Lerner was part of the main cast of "Clueless" — the TV series based on the movie that was, ironically, originally developed as a TV series. There he played Mel Horowitz, Cher's father, inheriting the part played by Dan Hedaya in the 1995 film. Lerner died at 81 in 2023, from complications brought on by seizures he'd suffered the previous year.

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• Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
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