I grew up falling in love with Gilbert Blythe, the nearly perfect boy-next-door in Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables series. I loved the books, but what first introduced me to the story was Kevin Sullivan’s brilliant 1984 mini-series. The entire cast is perfect. Megan Follows is the embodiment of Anne Shirley, and I can’t imagine anyone playing Gilbert Blythe better than Jonathan Crombie. Hearing of his untimely death this afternoon has stirred a lot of emotions for a person I never met. Yet, somehow, he was such a large part of my adolescent life, that it’s a loss I feel quite deeply. So I wanted to write my own brief, but loving, tribute to someone who has played a significant part in shaping my romantic ideals. ❤
Jonathan Crombie, Anne of Green Gables actor, dead at 48 – Canada – CBC News.
“Jonathan Crombie, who portrayed Gilbert Blythe in the Anne of Green Gablesmovies, has died at age 48, CBC has learned.
He was also the son of former parliamentarian and ex-Toronto mayor David Crombie. The actor’s sister, Carrie Crombie, confirmed Saturday that her brother suffered a brain hemorrhage and died in New York City on April 15.
Crombie said a “huge wonderful celebration of life” will be held in his honour sometime in the coming weeks.
She said she didn’t know of any major health issues and that her brother was committed to staying healthy. She added his organs were donated and he would have been proud of that.
His ashes will be brought back to Canada via bus from New York, and his family will be part of that journey, she said, because that’s the way he liked to travel, between New York and Toronto.
Jonathan Crombie will be best remembered for his role in the CBC TV movie Anne of Green Gables, in 1984, and its two sequels in 1987 and 2000.
He was also with a sketch comedy troupe featured in the Canadian TV series Comedy Now! in 1998.
In 2008, Crombie performed in the successful Broadway tour of musical The Drowsy Chaperone.
David Crombie was mayor of Toronto from 1972 to 1978 and was later a federal Progressive Conservative cabinet minister in the 1980s.”
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