Michael RozmanMike O'Malley made an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Thursday, Oct. 10, to promote his new NBC comedy, Welcome to the Family. Of course, the actor couldn't help but discuss the death of his former costar Cory Monteith, who played his stepson on Glee for four seasons.
"You know, Cory Monteith was a great guy," said O'Malley, who plays Burt Hummel. A special tribute episode, "The Quarterback," will honor the late actor's character, Finn Hudson.
"I think that the writers—Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan—have taken this incredible task, which was to write a story about a character that passed away and yet honor the actor and really show the audience the love that the cast and the crew…had for him," O'Malley said. "It was a really remarkable episode. I think it's one of the most beautiful episodes they've ever written on that show, and I think one of they've written some beautiful ones."
O'Malley said the Glee family is still mourning the loss of Monteith, who died at age 31 from an accidental drug and alcohol overdose on July 13.
"I think that everyone in the cast is dealing with it in their own way, because they all had their own relationships with him. I don't want to profess that I was as close to him as some of the younger people were on that show, because they were an incredibly close unit," the 46-year-old shared. "I thought they went through just a massive experience of fame, exposure and success, and I really think that they all handled it quite well."
O'Malley said it's "important" to honor Monteith and his character, whom fans have grown to love since the show premiered on Fox in 2009. "You wanted to honor his life, yet he was very important to an audience…It's really emotional for an audience, whether you knew him personally or not."