Esta TerBlanche, ‘All My Children’ actress, dead at 51

By Alli Rosenbloom, CNN

(CNN) — Esta TerBlanche, the South African actress best known for her role as Gillian Andrassy Lavery on “All My Children,” has died, according to her manager Annie Spoliansky. She was 51.

TerBlanche died on Thursday in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office online records show.

A cause of death has not yet been determined.

Spoliansky told CNN in a statement on Sunday that “Esta was such a kind, loving, giving, and caring person.”

“She cared so deeply for all people and animals,” Spoliansky’s statement read. “Esta was never anything but generous and lovely to me, and I’m grateful to have known her for the time that I did, and devastated to learn of her passing.”

TerBlanche played the role of Gillian Andrassy Lavery on the famed ABC soap opera “All My Children” between 1997 and 2001.

She later reprised her role in one episode in 2011 and appeared in over 100 episodes.

CNN has reached out to ABC for comment.

Cameron Mathison, who played TerBlanche’s on-screen husband Ryan Lavery in “All My Children” paid tribute to his co-star on his Instagram Stories on Sunday.

“RIP my sweet princess,” Mathison wrote. He added that TerBlanche was “one of the sweetest people ever.”

TerBlanche started working as an actress in South Africa, where she was born and raised, before moving to the US in 1995.

Prior to her move, she was crowned Miss Teen South Africa in 1991 and appeared in South Africa’s first daytime soap opera “Egoli: Place of Gold” as the character Bienke Naudé Hartman between 1992 and 1995.

In a 2022 interview with Soaps in Depth, TerBlanche said landing the role on “Egoli” was a “dream come true.”

“People were so kind to me,” she said of her time on the series. “It was my first time working in the industry with all these professional people. Everybody was really nice to me.”

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