‘All My Children’ actress Esta TerBlanche dies

Esta TerBlanche, known for her role as Gillian Andrassy on “All My Children,” has died.

She was 51.

TerBlanche’s death was confirmed by her publicist but no cause of death was released, The New York Times reported.

Her manager, Annie Spoliansky called TerBlanche “a kind, loving, giving and caring person,” CNN reported. “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.”

“She cared so deeply for all people and animals,” the manager said in a statement.

TerBlanche was on the soap opera from 1997 to 2001 playing the character who was a Hungarian princess sent to live with her cousin.

Born in Rustenburg, South Africa in 1973, TerBlanch got her start when she was only 16 years old hosting a children’s show called “K-T.V.” and a math show called “Math No Problem.” She also won Miss Teen South Africa.

She also had a role on South Africa’s longest-running soap opera, “Egoli: Place of Gold,” before moving to the U.S. at the age of 23 to advance her acting career. Initially, she was told she was too young for the “All My Children” role, but got a callback for a screen test a month after she read for the casting crew.

TerBlanche said she had trouble remembering her lines, which were written in English, and her first language was Afrikaans, so her misspeaking was eventually adopted by writers as part of her character, The New York Times reported.

“I messed up the lines so often and said the wrong things, and they thought it was funny, and then they started to write it on purpose,” TerBlanche said.

Her costar and on-screen love interest Cameron Mathison wrote on Instagram, “RIP my sweet princess,” CNN reported.

Andrassy was killed off the show in 2001 after TerBlanche decided she wanted to go home to South Africa, but returned for one episode as a ghost, Soap Opera Digest reported.

After leaving the show, she focused mostly on charity work and opening her own spa.

TerBlanche leaves behind her father and sister, the Times reported.

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