Very sad news came from the entertainment industry over the weekend:
Veteran actress Esta Terblanche, best known for her role as Gillian Andrassi on the hit soap opera All My Children, has died.
She is 51 years old.
Treblanc “passed away unexpectedly” at her North Hollywood residence on Thursday, the star’s goddaughter told TMZ in an interview.
Authorities believe she had been gone for about a day when medical personnel discovered her body.
this Her cause of death is under investigation Representative Lisa Rodrigo told the celebrity gossip site, stressing that there was no additional information at this time.
TerBlanche rose to fame in 1991 when she won the Miss Teen South Africa title.
The late actress first played Bienkie Naudé Hartman in South Africa’s first soap opera, Egoli: The Land of Gold, from 1992 to 1995.
Two years later, she played Andrassi in All My Children.
The character is a troubled Hungarian princess married to Ryan Lavery (Cameron Matheson).
She was killed in 2001 (shot by an assassin due to mistaken identity), although Terblanche returned as Gillian’s ghost in a 2011 episode.
“When I came back, Cameron and I were so excited. When we saw each other, we both started bawling,” Terblanche told Soap Opera Digest a few years ago. “At the time, we hadn’t seen each other in many years, so it was a very touching moment for us.”
After her character in All My Children was murdered, Terblanche returned to South Africa…where she opened a spa and made documentaries with filmmaker Michael Kastenbaum.
At the time of Terblanche’s death, she had been splitting her time between South Africa and California.
The star’s manager, Annie Spolianky, also confirmed the sad news to Variety and said Terblanche was a “wonderful, kind and loving person.”
Meanwhile, Matheson paid tribute to Terblanche in a series of Instagram Stories on Sunday.
The first word is “RIP my lovely princess” and above is a photo of the two on the set.
In another story, he added, “Esta helped me last year when [my dog] Red was sick and paralyzed, and I was struggling. One of the cutest people ever.
Our condolences go out to Esta TerBlanche’s friends, family and loved ones.
May she rest in peace.
