Very sad news over the weekend out of the entertainment industry:
Esta TerBlanche, a veteran actress best known for having played Gillian Andrassy on the popular soap opera All My Children has passed away.
She was 51 years old.
According to the star’s goddaughter, who spoke to TMZ, TerBlanche “died unexpectedly” on Thursday in her North Hollywood residence.
Authorities believe she had been gone for about a day by the time medical personnel discovered her body.
The cause of her death is under investigation rep Lisa Rodrigo told this celebrity gossip website, emphasizing there is no other information available at this time.
TerBlanche rose to fame after she won Miss Teen South Africa in 1991.
The late actress landed first acting role as Bienkie Naudé Hartman on South Africa’s first soap opera, “Egoli: Place of Gold,” from 1992 to 1995.
Two years later, she was cast as Andrassy on All My Children.
The character was a troublesome Hungarian princess who was married to Ryan Lavery (Cameron Mathison).
She was killed off in 2001 (after getting shot by an assassin in a case of mistaken identity), although TerBlanche returned as Gillian’s ghost for one episode in 2011.
“When I came back, it was really emotional for me and Cameron. When we saw each other, we both started bawling,” TerBlanche told Soap Opera Digest years ago. “Back then, we hadn’t seen each other for years, so it was such a touching moment for us.”
After the murder of her character on All My Children, TerBlanche returned to South Africa… where she opened a spa and worked on documentaries with filmmaker Michael Kastenbaum.
At the time of TerBlanche’s passing, she had been splitting her time between South Africa and California.
Annie Spolianky, the star’s manager, also confirmed this sad news to Variety and said that TerBlanche was a “wonderful, kind and loving person.”
Mathison, meanwhile, paid tribute to TerBlanche on Sunday in a series of Instagram Stories.
The first read, “RIP my sweet princess” atop a photo of the pair on 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 sweetest people ever.”
We send our condolences to the friends, family members and loved ones of Esta TerBlanche.
May she rest in peace.