Esta TerBlanche from “All My Children” has died. She was 51. The South African actress “died unexpectedly” on Thursday at her home in North Hollywood, her goddaughter, Barbie Ashley, told TMZ Sunday.
Medical personnel think TerBlanche was dead for about a day before was found, TMZ reported. Her rep, Lisa Rodrigo, told TMZ the star’s death is under investigation. TerBlanche rose to fame after she won Miss Teen South Africa in 1991.
Her first acting role was as Bienkie Naudé Hartman on South Africa’s first soap opera, “Egoli: Place of Gold,” from 1992 to 1995. In 1997, she was cast in the role of Gillian Andrassy in “All My Children.” Gillian is a Hungarian princess.
She starts off as a spoiled and arrogant girl who evolves into a much kinder and compassionate person. She was killed off the show in 2001. TerBlanche briefly reprised the role in 2011 as a ghost who appears to Cameron Mathison’s Ryan Lavery.
She talked about her return to the show in an interview with Soap Opera Digest published one week before the news of her death. “When I came back, it was really emotional for me and Cameron. When we saw each other, we both started bawling,” TerBlanche said.
“Back then, we hadn’t seen each other for years, so it was such a touching moment for us.” She stopped acting after leaving “All My Children” and moved back to South African. But in the Soap Opera Digest interview, TerBlanche said she was spending more time in the U.
S. and was ready to .