Crombie, 48, last appeared on a recent episode of CBS’ “The Good Wife,” but he found an enduring place in the hearts of many in his long-running role as Gilbert Blythe in the “Anne of Green Gables” series.
The character portrayed by the Toronto native wins the fancy of the eponymous red-haired orphan girl transported to the fictional town of Avonlea on Prince Edward Island in the adaptation of Lucy Maud Montgomery's novels.
And Crombie, who won the role as a high schooler over the likes of Jason Priestly in a 1985 CBC miniseries, came to embody his famous part in filmmaker Kevin Sullivan’s line of TV shows and movies, Sullivan told CBC.
“I think for legions of young women around the world who fell in love with the Anne of Green Gables films, Jonathan literally represented the quintessential boy next door, and there were literally thousands of women who wrote to him over the years who saw him as a perfect mate,” Sullivan said.
“I think there will be hundreds of people who will be floored that this has happened. It's such a devastating tragedy. In reality, Jonathan was as generous, as kind, as sensitive and as ambitious, in some ways, as the character he came to be identified with.”
Crombie also served as the voice of Benjamin Bear in the animated series “The Secret Adventures of Benjamin Bear,” according to his profile on the IMDb entertainment database. He’s survived by his father, former Toronto Mayor David Crombie, and his sister Carrie Crombie, who told CBC her brother relished his lead role in the Broadway production of “The Drowsy Chaperone” as his proudest accomplishment.
“He would only take the bus back and forth from Toronto to New York,” she said. “And, to be honest, that's how we are going to be bringing him back. We felt that it was an ode to Jonathan. He would never go on a plane, so we're going to make the trek from New York to Toronto on a bus with his ashes.”
The family will host a “huge, wonderful celebration of life” in his honor in upcoming weeks, she told the outlet.
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