Instagram/Channel Seven
When the news broke that former Home and Away star Dieter Brummer had died aged 45 in July 2021, Australia mourned.
He was the heartthrob who won a legion of fans in the 1990s for his portrayal of Shane Parrish – the on-screen love interest of Melissa George’s Angel Brooks on the hit Channel Seven show.
His death was a tragedy as much as it was a shock – for the star took his own life at his family home.
“We lost our handsome, talented, funny, complicated and beloved Dieter on Saturday morning,” the actor’s devastated mother Dawn said in a statement.
“He has left a massive hole in our lives and our world will never be the same.
“Whilst he has now found peace, we know there are others who are suffering and need help … Together, we can raise funds to make a real difference to the lives of those affected by depression and prevent other families feeling as we do now.”
While Dieter won the Most Popular Actor Award at the TV Week Logie Awards in 1995 and 1996, he subsequently largely disappeared from the spotlight.
At the time of his death, he had been working as a window cleaner on high rise buildings and had become increasingly withdrawn.
Friends of the actor said Sydney’s Covid lockdown was the “last straw” for the actor, as his work had begun to dry up.
“At one stage he was the most popular boy on soaps. He simply couldn’t walk down the street without being stopped and photographed,” a friend told The Mirror after his passing.
“Over the last few years, people didn’t really stop him anymore. If they did, it was to ask ‘What happened?'”
Now, a friend of the late star is shining a light on his memory once again – as the date on which he would have turned 50 passes.
TV presenter and filmmaker Steve Pennells, who got to know Dieter while filming Home and Away’s 30th anniversary special a few years before he took his life, is one who wants his legacy to live on.
“He was exactly what you hoped he’d be -funny, grounded, dry-witted and completely without ego,” the Lifeline ambassador shared in a poignant Instagram post on May 14.
“Fame made him one of the most recognisable faces in the country and the world, but he also saw the cost of it long before most people did.
“There was something quietly honest about the way he stepped away from that world when it no longer made him happy,” he continued.
“I still think about his mum and family and former castmates often. Losing someone you love never really stops hurting. You just learn to carry it.”
Dieter himself was candid about his struggles with fame in the years before his death.
In his last interview, recorded in 2018 and released as part of 7NEWS Spotlight: The Fame Game, Dieter was asked about the fickleness of life in the public eye.
“Yes. Yes. It can be very fickle. You’re hot one moment and then you’re not the next. You’d have to just deal with it in any way you can,” the star reflected.
“So, I did my best. It was pretty full on. Screaming girls at appearances. It was all pretty chaotic and hectic.
“I think I’d experienced so much fame during those years on Home and Away that I did just want to take a break from it and literally try and experience a life as Joe Bloggs and live like normal people do.”
If you or someone you know needs support, help is available from Lifeline on 13 11 14.
