Salling's attorney, Michael Proctor, confirmed
the death but would not comment on a report on celebrity website
TMZ that said law enforcement sources called it an apparent
suicide in Los Angeles. Proctor also did not immediately provide
the cause of death.
"I can confirm that Mark Salling passed away early this
morning," Proctor said in a statement.
Police and the Los Angeles County coroner's office confirmed
that a body had been found in Los Angeles but would not
immediately identify it.
Salling was arrested in 2015 after he showed child pornography
on his computer to a girlfriend and she reported it to police,
according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Salling pleaded guilty on Dec. 18 to a federal charge of
possessing child pornography, admitting he had downloaded 25,000
sexual images of children onto his computer from the Internet.
He was allowed to remain free as his case was heard, and was
scheduled to appear in court on March 7 for sentencing.
Salling faced a sentence of between four to seven years in
prison under the plea agreement he reached with prosecutors, the
Justice Department said in December.
From 2009 to 2015, Salling appeared in "Glee," an award-winning
show on Fox. He played Puck, a bully and a football player who
showed a softer side when he joined the glee club at his high
school.
"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," Proctor said.
(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by David Gregorio)
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