Christian Oliver was an American actor born in Germany who worked with Tom Cruise and George Clooney and had a 30-year career.
He died Thursday with his two girls in a plane crash off the coast of a Caribbean island.
A single-engine plane carrying Oliver (born Christian Klepser) and his girls took off from an airport in Bequia, a small island in the country of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, at about 12:10 p.m. local time, according to the authorities.
The Royal St. Vincent and Grenadines police force said that the plane, which was going to the nearby island of St. Lucia, had some problems early in the flight and then crashed into the water.
Divers, fishermen, and members of the coast guard rushed to the scene of the crash, and military officials were able to recover the bodies of four people who were on board the plane.
Police say that Oliver, 51, his daughters Annik and Madita Klepser, 10 and 12, and the plane’s pilot and owner, Robert Sachs, were all declared dead at the scene.
The coast guard brought Oliver, his daughters, and Sachs, who lived in Bequia, to a nearby morgue by boat. On Friday, autopsies would be done to find out exactly how they died.
Many people sent their condolences to the actor’s family and friends after the fatal crash on Thursday. According to Deadline, the actor had just finished shooting his last scenes for the upcoming movie Forever Hold Your Peace.
In honor of Oliver, the director of Forever Hold Your Peace, Nick Lyon, posted a picture of himself and the late actor on their last day of shooting on Instagram late Thursday night.
Lyon wrote, “We talked about producing a film together for years and finally did it,” He also said that he and Oliver had worked on five projects together. “Thank you for being a great colleague, actor and friend.”
He worked with Bai Ling on the movie Forever Hold Your Peace. Ling wrote an homage to Oliver on Instagram, calling him “such a brave actor and a beautiful person”.
Ling said that Oliver died while he was on vacation and added, “Life [is] so beautiful yet so unpredictable and so precious. Let’s love and cherish our lives each moment.”
Oliver’s first job as an actor was in 26 episodes of the show Saved by the Bell: The New Class in 1994. From 2006 to 2008, he played parts in The Good German with George Clooney and Cate Blanchett, Speed Racer by Emile Hirsch, and Valkyrie by Tom Cruise.