Esta TerBlanche, best known for her role as Gillian Andrassy on “All My Children,” has died. She was 51.
TerBlanche died on Thursday at her home, according to the County of Los Angeles Medical Examiner. Her cause of death is under investigation.
Her talent manager, Annie Spolianky, also confirmed the news to Variety, saying that TerBlanche was a “wonderful, kind and loving person.”
TerBlanche played Gillian, a troublesome Hungarian princess, on “All My Children” from 1997 to 2001. Her character was married to Ryan Lavery (Cameron Mathison), who removed her from life support after she was shot by an assassin in a case of mistaken identity. TerBlanche returned as Gillian’s ghost for one episode in 2011, as the soap opera wrapped up its four-decade run on ABC.
“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 in an interview published on July 13. “Back then, we hadn’t seen each other for years, so it was such a touching moment for us.”
TerBlanche was born on Jan. 7, 1973, in Rustenberg, a city in the North West province of South Africa. She was crowned Miss Teen South Africa in 1991.
Early in her career as an actor, TerBlanche was cast as Beatrice “Bienkie” Naudé Hartman on “Egoli: Place of Gold,” the first South African soap opera, which she appeared in from 1992 to 1995. She eventually moved to the U.S. and worked on “All My Children” two years later.
After Gillian’s death on “All My Children” in 2001, TerBlanche returned to South Africa, where she opened a spa and worked on documentaries with filmmaker Michael Kastenbaum, Soap Opera Digest reported. At the time of TerBlanche’s passing, she had been splitting her time between South Africa and California.
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