‘All My Children’ Star Was 51

Esta TerBlanche, the soap opera star best known for playing Gillian Andrassy on All My Children, has died. She was 51.

TerBlanche died Thursday of natural causes, her friend and agent Lisa Rodrigo wrote on Facebook. An autopsy report is pending. “I am still processing and in shock,” Rodrigo wrote. “Esta was a beautiful soul in and out. I was proud to know her and work with her.”

Born in Rustenberg, South Africa in 1973, TerBlanche came to prominence in her home country when she won Miss Teen South Africa in 1991. She segued into television work and made her small screen debut on the South African soap Egoli: Place of Gold, starring in the M-Net show from 1992 to 1995.

In the late 1990s, she left for the U.S. and scored her biggest role when she was cast as Gillian on ABC’s daytime drama All My Children in 1997. The character of Gillian saw TerBlanche play a Hungarian princess who was sent to live with her cousin Dimitri (played by Michael Nader). On All My Children, TerBlanche had a popular storyline with actor Cameron Mathison, with his character Ryan Lavery having an enemies to lovers story arc with Gillian.

Despite her popularity on All My Children, TerBlanche left the show in 2001 after her character was killed off, though Gillian made sporadic appearances in later years, once notably as a ghost and also made appearances in the show’s final weeks on ABC. She revealed to Soap Opera Digest earlier this month that she exited the show at her own request, as she wanted to return to South Africa.

Back home, she opened a spa and also appeared in South African documentaries and television. In recent years she was spending more time in the U.S. and when asked if she was keen to get back into soaps, she told Soap Opera Digest, “it’s definitely something I would like to get back into.”

She is survived by her father and her sister.