Charlbi Dean, South African 'Triangle of Sadness' star, dies at 32

The actress's agent has announced her sudden death months after her breakout role in this year's Palme d'Or winner at the Cannes Film Festival

Charlbi Dean at the premiere of 'Triangle of Sadness' at the 75th Cannes Film Festival in May 2022. AP

It was Dean's breakout role and the film picked up the Palme d'Or, the event's top prize. Getty Images

The cast and crew, including Dean and fellow actors Woody Harrelson and Harris Dickinson, at the festival in the South of France. AP

Dean joined the 'Cannes 75' anniversary dinner in May. Getty Images

Dean wore Chopard at the Chopard Loves Cinema gala dinner at Hotel Martinez, Cannes, in May. Getty Images

Dean, left, starred alongside Dickinson in 'Triangle of Sadness'. AP

FILE - Charlbi Dean Kriek arrives at the premiere of "Finch" on Nov. 2, 2021, at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood, Calif. The South African actor and model has died at age 32. Dean had a breakout role in the movie “Triangle of Sadness,” which won this year’s top prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Her representatives say she died Monday, Aug. 29, 2022 at a hospital in New York from a sudden unexpected illness. (Photo by Richard Shotwell / invision / AP, File)

Dean at the premiere of 'Finch', an Apple TV+ film starring Tom Hanks and Caleb Landry Jones, in November 2021. AFP

Dean at the premiere of the second season of 'Ted Lasso' in Hollywood, California, in July 2021. EPA

Charlbi Dean, the South African actress and model who starred in Triangle of Sadness, which won this year's top prize at the Cannes Film Festival, has died aged 32.

Dean died of a sudden unexpected illness at a New York hospital on Monday, her representatives said.

The rising star, born Charlbi Dean Kriek in Cape Town, where she was also raised, had a recurring role as the assassin Syonide on the DC Comics television series Black Lightning, broadcast on the CW Network from 2018 to 2021.

Dean began modelling as a child, making frequent appearances on fashion runways and magazine covers in the decades that followed.

She survived a near-fatal car accident in 2009.

She made her acting debut in the 2010 film Spud, an adaptation of a popular South African novel about a boys' boarding school starring Troye Sivan and John Cleese. She reprised her role in a 2013 sequel.

In Triangle of Sadness, the first English-language film from Swedish director Ruben Ostlund, Dean played a celebrity model on a cruise for the ultra-rich that descends into chaos. It also stars Harris Dickinson and Woody Harrelson.

Scroll through the gallery below to see photos from the 'Triangle of Sadness' premiere in Cannes

The film won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in May and opens in the US and most of Europe in October.

At the festival before the film won the award, Dean said: “For me, I’m like, I’ve already won. I’m already at Cannes with the movie. That’s so unbelievable. Anything is just a cherry on top at this point for me, you know?”

Scroll through the gallery below for other stars we've lost in 2022