‘All My Children’ actor was 51

Esta TerBlanche, best known for her role as Gillian Andrassy in ‘All My Children’, has died. She was 51.

TerBlanche died at her home on Thursday, the newspaper said Los Angeles County Medical Examiner. Her cause of death is under investigation.

Her talent manager, Annie Spolianky, also confirmed the news Varietysaying 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 took her off life support after she was shot by an assassin in a case of mistake . identity. TerBlanche returned as Gillian’s ghost for one episode in 2011, when the soap opera concluded its four-decade run on ABC.

“When I came back it was very emotional for me and Cameron. When we saw each other, we both started crying,” TerBlanche said Soap Opera Digest in an interview published on July 13. “At the time, we hadn’t seen each other in years, so it was such a moving moment for us.”

TerBlanche was born on January 7, 1973 in Rustenberg, a town in the North West Province of South Africa. In 1991 she was crowned Miss Teen South Africa.

Early in her acting career, TerBlanche was cast as Beatrice ‘Bienkie’ Naudé Hartman in ‘Egoli: Place of Gold’, the first South African soap opera, in which she starred from 1992 to 1995. She eventually moved to the US and worked on ‘All My Children’ two years later.

After Gillian’s death in ‘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 death, she divided her time between South Africa and California.