'All-American' Gave Coach Montes a Proper Farewell to Honor the Real Life Actor's Passing

When a crew member on a TV show tragically passes away, the series they were working on at the time will usually honor them with a short but noticeable memorial at the end of an episode. Even if they weren't in front of the camera, an episode will take the time to make sure audiences know who this person meant to the production. This can be especially tricky when an actor portraying a character in the show dies in the middle of a show's run, but All American tackled this issue head-on.

All American is a sports drama on The CW that first began in 2018. Based on the real-life events of football player Spencer Paysinger, it follows high school football star Spencer James (Daniel Ezra) who is recruited to play for Beverly Hills High only to get caught up in the turbulent drama of two rivaling high school football teams.

The series featured a recurring character named Coach Montes, portrayed by Kamar de Los Reyes. What happened to Coach Montes after Kamar passed away in real life?

Coach Montes was first introduced in Season 4 of All American. He was the head coach at Coastal California University. In his role, he offers plenty of guidance to Asher Adams (Cody Christian) as he begins to flourish in his budding football career.

Montes would sporadically appear in later seasons, having only a guest role in Season 5 and only appearing in one episode of Season 6. Unfortunately, the actor portraying him was largely absent from production due to a battle with illness that he tragically lost.

On Dec. 24, 2023, Kamar de los Reyes passed away after a brief battle with cancer. He was only 56 years old at the time.

His loss shook the cast and crew hard, with showrunner Nkechi Okoro Carrol sharing her condolences shortly after his passing.

"We are absolutely devastated at the loss of Kamar," she said in a statement to Deadline. "He was such a beloved member of our All American family. He brought so much love, light, and joy to the set every day even during his final days."

To that end, the show's production honored Kamar by giving his character a happy ending.

In Season 6, Episode 10, "Mass Appeal," it was eventually revealed that Coach Montes took up a new job as a coach for the NFL. The end of the episode also featured an "In Loving Memory" memorial dedicated to Kamar.

Coach Montes's story is all wrapped up with the show taking special care to honor Kamar's memory. Catch new episodes of All American every Monday at 8 p.m. EST on The CW.