Anne of Green Gables actor Jonathan Crombie dies of brain hemorrhage at age 48

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Canadian actor Jonathan Crombie, best known for his role on the Anne of Green Gables movies, has died at the age of 48.

Anne of Green Gables producer Kevin Sullivan says Crombie died from complications from a brain hemorrhage in New York City on April 15.

Crombie became famous for portraying the character of Gilbert Blythe in the 1985 Anne Of Green Gables television movie that aired on the CBC and spawned two sequels in 1987 and 2000.

He was also the son of David Crombie, who was a federal cabinet minister in the government of Brian Mulroney and mayor of Toronto from 1972 to 1978.

Jonathan Crombie was also a member of a sketch comedy troupe on the Canadian TV series Comedy Now! in 1998 and performed in The Drowsy Chaperone Broadway musical in 2008.

Sullivan says the news was "completely unexpected" and he called Crombie the "quintessential boy next door."

"There were literally legions of young women around the world who saw him as kind of the perfect boyfriend and many people fell in love with him," he said.

"But on a personal level he was as generous and sensitive and ambitious in some ways as the person that he played on screen."

Sullivan said Crombie didn't know he had a "unique gift" for acting and was thrown into the industry at the age of 17 after being discovered in a high school play during an "exhaustive" search for actors that included Jason Priestley.