Esta TerBlanche, who played Gillian on the soap opera “All My Children,” died on Thursday of natural causes. She was 51. “I am still processing and in shock.
Esta was a beautiful soul in and out. I was proud to know her and work with her. More to come in the days ahead,” her agent, Lisa Rodrigo, said in a post on Facebook announcing the death.
“May she RIP with the angels that she is.” Rodrigo also said that an autopsy report is pending. Born in 1973 in South Africa was crowned Miss Teen South Africa in 1991, according to Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter.
Her first acting role was on the South African soap "Egoli: Place of Gold,” where she played Bienkie Naudé Hartman from 1992-95. She then moved to the U.S.
, where she won the role of Hungarian princess Gillian on “All My Children” in 1997. She left the show in 2001 after her character was killed off, although she made appearances on the program occasionally, most notably during its last few weeks on ABC. She returned to South Africa and opened a spa, worked on several documentaries, and hosted television shows.
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