The German-born US actor Christian Oliver, who performed in films alongside Tom Cruise and George Clooney during a 30-year career, died alongside his two daughters on Thursday in a plane crash off the coast of a Caribbean island.
Oliver, who was born Christian Klepser, and his daughters were passengers aboard a single-engine airplane that took off at approximately 12.10pm local time from an airport in Bequia, a small island belonging to the nation of St Vincent and the Grenadines, according to authorities.
Officials with the Royal St Vincent and Grenadines police force said that the plane – headed to nearby St Lucia – encountered unspecified difficulties moments into the flight and then plummeted into the sea.
Fishers, divers and members of the nation’s coast guard descended on the scene of the crash, and the military personnel were able to recover the four bodies of people onboard the plane.
Oliver, 51; his daughters Annik and Madita Klepser, 10 and 12, respectively; and the plane’s pilot and owner, Robert Sachs, were all pronounced dead at the scene by medical staff, police said. The coast guard brought the bodies of Oliver, his daughters and Sachs – a Bequia resident – to a local mortuary by boat, and autopsies meant to determine their exact causes of death were pending on Friday.
Thursday’s deadly crash drew an outpouring of condolences for the family and friends of the late actor, who had finished filming his final scenes on the set of an upcoming film titled Forever Hold Your Peace just five days before Christmas, Deadline reported.
Forever Hold Your Peace’s director, Nick Lyon, paid tribute to Oliver late on Thursday by posting a photo on Instagram of him and the late actor on their last day of filming.
“We talked about producing a film together for years and finally did it,” Lyon wrote, adding that he and Oliver had worked on five projects together. “Thank you for being a great colleague, actor and friend.”
His Forever Hold Your Peace co-star Bai Ling also published a tribute to Oliver on Instagram, calling him “such a brave actor and a beautiful person”.
Ling, who noted that Oliver was on vacation when he died, added: “Life [is] so beautiful yet so unpredictable and so precious. Let’s love and cherish our lives each moment.”
Oliver’s acting career began in 1994 with a 26-episode role on the show Saved by the Bell: The New Class. From 2006 to 2008, he portrayed characters in Clooney and Cate Blanchett’s The Good German, Emile Hirsch’s Speed Racer and Tom Cruise’s Valkyrie.
In addition to his role in Forever Hold Your Peace, the Los Angeles resident’s more recent credits included voice work on Call of Duty and Medal of Honor video game series entries in 2017 and 2020, respectively.