Former Glee star Mark Salling has been found dead.

Salling's lawyer, Michael J. Proctor, told The Associated Press the actor died on Tuesday. His death comes weeks before the actor was scheduled to be sentenced in a US federal court on child pornography charges.

Proctor did not reveal the cause of death.

PETER LARSEN /GETTY Former Glee star Mark Salling has been found dead.

Salling had been waiting sentencing after he pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography in December 2017.

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KEVIN WINTER / GETTY Mark Salling played Noah Puckerman in the television show Glee.

Salling's body was reportedly found near a riverbed in Sunland, California. His death is a suspected suicide.

He was arrested in December 2015 after police officers raided his home in Sunland, California following a a tip-off. Prosecutors said they found 50,000 pornographic images of underage children on his laptop computer and a flash memory drive.

Salling was due to be sentenced in March, and was expected to face between four and seven years in jail.

In his plea deal he agreed to serve 20 years of supervised release once he was set free, and pay at least NZ$68,000 to each victim seeking restitution.

Salling was out on bail at the time of his death. He was 35.

He was best known for playing the character Noah "Puck" Puckerman on the popular US high school musical drama Glee, but also had roles in Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering (1996) and The Graveyard (2006).

Salling was born in Dallas, Texas and studied music at the Los Angeles Music Academy College of Music in Pasadena, California.

He's the second of Glee​'s male leads to die young.

The show's star, Cory Monteith, died in 2013 of an overdose of heroin and alcohol.



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