Australian heartthrob Dieter Brummer, best known for his portrayal of Shane in Home and Away, captured the hearts of millions with his blonde locks, flawless tan, charming dimples and dazzling white teeth. He drew in up to eight million viewers per episode in the UK alone.
He shared the screen with Melissa George, who played Angel, and together they formed one of the most adored couples on the soap. Their characters’ plot involved a proposal during their school years, which left Summer Bay’s older inhabitants taken aback.
However, their on-screen love story was tainted by misfortune, with Angel temporarily losing her mobility after being struck by Alf (Ray Meagher), and Shane being thrown off his motorbike. Despite an initial recovery, Shane sadly succumbed to septicaemia, leaving Angel under the care of Pippa (Vanessa Downing).
Melissa George, who portrayed Angel, welcomed her third child in March last year, at 47-years-old. Meanwhile, Tristan Bancks, who played his on-screen mate Tug, now authors award-winning children’s books.
In the 1990s, Dieter frequently appeared on the covers of numerous teen magazines and bagged two Australian TV Logie awards for his performances. After bidding farewell to Summer Bay in 1996 following 557 episodes, he featured in the hospital drama Medivac and later made a comeback to soaps in the short-lived 2001 Sky TV soap Crash Palace, as well as Home and Away rival Neighbours, playing Troy Miller from 2011 to 2012, reports the Mirror.
However, Dieter’s life wasn’t always plain sailing, as he later confessed to having a tense off-screen relationship with co-star Melissa.
In 2019, he revealed to Woman’s Day that his on-screen romance in Home and Away was far from reality: “We may have been love interests on the show but the chemistry was far from real. Mel was incredibly ambitious right from the outset. I don’t think she had much time for the cast of Home and Away.”
He then clarified: “We had to look like the perfect darling couple in public. It wasn’t like anything off screen. It was all on screen.”
Reflecting on his struggles with fame, similar to Neighbours’ legend Paul Keane who played Des, he expressed his feelings, stating: “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.”
Delving deeper, he added: “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.”
Switching gears from acting, Dieter trained as a skyscraper window cleaner and relished the anonymity that came with his new profession.
However, despite finding contentment away from the spotlight, his happiness took a sudden downturn. Just as he was gearing up for a new window cleaning job, Australia’s New South Wales government imposed Covid restrictions, halting construction entirely, and leaving him in despair and without work.
Then, four years ago on 24 July 2021, fans were left distraught by the news that the former heartthrob had tragically ended his own life at his parents’ home in Sydney, at the tender age of 45.
Following the devastating news, his family released a touching statement: “We lost our handsome, talented, funny, complicated and beloved Dieter on Saturday morning.
“He has left a massive hole in our lives and our world will never be the same.”
As fans around the world mourned his passing, only a small gathering of 10 people were able to attend his funeral due to stringent lockdown restrictions.
