Popular ABC TV Actress Dead At 51

Esta TerBlanche, renowned for her role as Gillian Andrassy on “All My Children,” passed away at 51.

Her talent manager, Annie Spoliansky, expressed deep sadness over her death, describing TerBlanche as a beautiful and gentle soul.

“Deeply saddened to hear of the passing of my dear friend and client Esta TerBlanche,” Spoliansky wrote. “She was a beautiful and gentle soul who will be incredibly missed. Her long-running role on ‘All My Children’ will live on.”

The cause of death remains under investigation, with an autopsy planned, as it was not listed by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s office.

TerBlanche, originally from South Africa, was crowned Miss Teen South Africa in 1991 and gained fame through her role in the South African drama “Egoli: Place of Gold.”

After moving to the U.S., she starred in “All My Children” until 2001 and later returned to South Africa to pursue various interests, including opening a spa and acting in local productions.

“I went to audition for something else and the casting people let my agents know they liked me but I was too young for the part,” TerBlanche said in February of 2024. “They said they wanted to write something for me. About a month later, we got a call saying they wrote something and wanted me to come screen test in New York.”

“I just knew in my heart this is what I had to do,” she said. “You’ve got to do this. It was literally just getting up every day and doing it over and over again because it’s not just going in that one time to audition and you get the job.”

“Working on this American production was a blessing, really, and Cameron was amazing,” she said. “English wasn’t my first language, so I sometimes really struggled with remembering my lines, and he was really good at that. If I came in with the wrong lines, he would just adjust; he never made a big deal out of it.”

TerBlanche was multilingual and well-known in South African media, having appeared on numerous magazine covers.