Anne of Green Gables star Jonathan Crombie dies at 48

by Craig Takeuchi on April 21st, 2015 at 7:28 PM

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Canadian actor Jonathan Crombie, of Anne of Green Gables fame, died in New York City on April 15. He suffered a brain hemorrhage. He was 48 years old.

The Toronto-born Jonathan was the son of David Crombie, who was Toronto's mayor from 1972 to 1978 and a federal Progressive Conservative cabinet minister.

He starred as Gilbert Blythe, the love interest of Anne Shirley (played by Megan Follows), in the CBC TV movie Anne of Green Gables in 1985 and its two sequels: Anne of Avonlea in 1987 and Anne of Green Gables: The Continuing Story in 2000, as well as the spinoff TV series Road to Avonlea, starring Sarah Polley, in 1992.

Anne of Green Gables stars Megan Follows and Jonathan Crombie

The CBC shows were adaptations of Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery's internationally famous 1908 novel, about an orphan girl sent to live on Prince Edward Island.

Crombie also was on the TV series Comedy Now!, Mount Royal, Slings & Arrows, and Power Play, and had a stage career that included performing in Ontario's Stratford Festival and being a leading man on the Broadway production of The Drowsy Chaperone in 2007.