Farewell to a Summer Bay legend
His famous friends mourn the loss of an Aussie icon
Two Silver Logies and appearances on scores of sexiest men lists and countless magazine covers, Home And Away star Dieter Brummer was the Aussie TV heartthrob of the ’90s. In his role as Shane Parrish alongside Melissa George’s Angel, the actor became one half of soap’s most iconic couples.
While mourning the loss of the charismatic 45-year-old actor, whose body was found at his parents’ home in Glenhaven in Sydney’s north-west on July 24, his friends are keen for people to remember the cheeky, generous, sensitive man they knew and loved.
“I’m still in shock. I only spoke to him a short time ago,” Tina Thomsen, who played Finlay Roberts on the Seven soap, tells Woman’s Day. “How could I not have known how lonely he was... how much pain he must have been in?”
HUMBLE HEART
Tina, who starred alongside Dieter from 1991 to 1996, says the pair spoke for three hours and nothing seemed different about him. “He was good old Deet,” she says.
Fellow former castmate Debra Lawrance, 64, who played Summer Bay’s Pippa Fletcher from 1990 to 1998, says she and husband Dennis Coard – who also starred on the series – will remember Dieter “fondly for his professionalism, his lovely sense of fun, his intelligence and the respect with which he treated us older actors”.
The actress also admired Dieter’s down-to-earth nature, despite his massive fame. “Dieter was a huge heartthrob, but managed to keep everything in perspective... a rare quality,” says Debra.
Rebekah Elmaloglou, 47, also remembers a humble heart. “He was such a lovely boy and of course, that beautiful smile that won millions of hearts,” the actress, aka Sophie Simpson on the show, recalls to Woman’s Day. “He’ll be missed more than he’ll ever know.”
Bondi Rescue’s Ryan Clark, who started playing Sam Marshall in 1991 when he was just eight years old, is grateful to Dieter for making the adult-dominated set of a TV show fun for those around him.
“He was always there for a laugh,” the 38-yearold tells, sharing that a decade after they worked together, he and
Dieter bumped into each other at the pub and rekindled their friendship. “We proceeded to prank call each other for a year or two when we’d get on the beers,” says Ryan.
Dieter’s ’90s flatmate and rock climbing buddy Tristan Bancks, who played Tug O’neale on Home And Away, also recalls him fondly for “trying to find the humour in any given situation”. But Dieter was serious, too – especially
when it came to getting camera ready!
“Before we’d shoot a scene where we had our shirts off, we would madly do push-ups out the back in order to look as buff as we possibly could,” says Tristan, 46. “Deet always won that prize.”
And he was also a private soul, according to Kristy Wright. The 43-year-old actress, who played Chloe Richards on screen, stunned fans last week when she revealed that Dieter was “my first true love” in the mid-’90s.
‘Dieter will be missed more than he’ll ever know’
“Dieter was a huge part of my life many years ago and stayed a friend for the 20 years that followed,” Kristy tells Woman’s Day. “He was loved by many and this tragedy has left a massive hole in the lives of all who had the honour of knowing him.”