Jannes Eiselen

Jannes Eiselen (21 September 1980 - 23 September 2016) was a TV, stage and voice actor born in New York, but moved to South Africa in his youth. He was married and lived in Johannesburg, South Africa. He was trained in South Africa at the University of Pretoria, where he completed his degree in Drama in 2002. He performed in various stage plays and local series as a young performer. His first international role was in 2005, where he played Cpt. John Laverty in the UK docudrama, Zero Hour (2004). In 2006 he played the role of Dr. Deon Bekker on 3 seasons of the medical drama Hillside (2006), a teen drama that aired in Canada. In 2010, Eiselen was diagnosed with a primary parenchymal pineal brain tumor, a very rare and poorly understood cancer. Jannes wrestled with cancer in 2010-2011 and did not return to acting until December 2011, when he played on the TV Mini-Series, The Sinking of the Laconia (2010) before landing his role as Dufresne, the ship's accountant in Black Sails (2014). Sadly, brain cancer forced him to leave the cast prior to filming the second season. Jannes was also very successful in South Africa as a voice artist. Jannes was a supporter of Faces of Hope Foundation, a charity that provides assistance to people, especially children with rare-cancers. He died in Johannesburg, South Africa on 23 September 2016, two days after his 36th birthday, after his long and hard-fought battle with brain cancer.