{"id":2199255,"date":"2025-12-15T05:42:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:42:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2199255"},"modified":"2025-12-15T05:42:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:42:14","slug":"jonathan-pienaar-south-african-star-of-blood-diamond-dies-at-63","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/jonathan-pienaar-south-african-star-of-blood-diamond-dies-at-63\/","title":{"rendered":"Jonathan Pienaar, South African star of \u201cBlood Diamond\u201d, dies at 63"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div data-article-body=\"true\">\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Jonathan Pienaar, the prolific South African star of films like <em>Blood Diamond <\/em>and series like <em>Cape Town<\/em>, has died at the age 63.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Pienaar&#8217;s ex-wife, the dancer Rosana Maya, confirmed his death on Nov. 10 with a post to her official Facebook. Over a photo depicting Pienaar clad in leather in medium close-up, Maya wrote, &#8220;Most beautiful man, unique soul\u2026 like your wolves, you gave so much for so little\u2026 the world is a lesser place without you in it, my sadness too deep. Fly with angels my love.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"relative mb-4\">\n<div class=\"relative\"><button aria-label=\"View larger image\" class=\"group absolute bottom-3 right-3 size-10 md:size-[50px] lg:inset-0 lg:size-full lg:bg-transparent\" data-ylk=\"elm:expand;itc:1;sec:image-lightbox;slk:lightbox-open;\"><span class=\"absolute bottom-0 right-0 rounded-full bg-white p-3 opacity-100 shadow-elevation-3 transition-opacity duration-300 group-hover:block group-hover:opacity-100 md:p-[17px] lg:bottom-6 lg:right-6 lg:bg-white\/90 lg:p-5 lg:opacity-0 lg:shadow-none\"><svg viewbox=\"0 0 22 22\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"size-4 lg:size-6\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\"><path d=\"M12.372.92c0-.506.41-.916.915-.916L21 0l-.004 7.712a.917.917 0 0 1-1.832 0V3.183l-6.827 6.828-1.349-1.348 6.828-6.828h-4.529a.915.915 0 0 1-.915-.915M1.835 17.816l6.828-6.828 1.349 1.349-6.829 6.827h4.529a.915.915 0 0 1 0 1.831L0 21l.004-7.713a.916.916 0 0 1 1.831 0z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/button><dialog aria-label=\"Modal Dialog\" aria-modal=\"true\" class=\"fixed inset-0 z-4 size-full max-h-none max-w-none bg-white hidden\"\/><\/div><figcaption class=\"relative text-sm mt-1 pr-2.5\">\n<div style=\"max-height:none;overflow:visible\">\n<p>Warner Bros<\/p>\n<p> Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonathan Pienaar in &#8216;Blood Diamond&#8217;<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Maya confirmed to the South African news site <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/life\/arts-and-entertainment\/celebrities\/sa-actor-jonathan-pienaar-63-has-died-20251110-0908\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:News24;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">News24<\/a> on the same day that Pienaar died at his home in the Auckland Park neighborhood of Johannesburg. She noted that the actor&#8217;s health had been &#8220;deteriorating&#8221; as of late, stating that his death was the result of &#8220;heart failure.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;I had a nurse here looking after him, and she said that she went in to see him and he said, &#8216;Where am I?&#8217; and fell asleep again. When the nurse went to give him his medication, he passed on,&#8221; she shared.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong><em>Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/ew.com\/ew-dispatch-newsletter-11812417\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:EW Dispatch newsletter;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">EW Dispatch newsletter<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Pienaar was born on Sept. 16, 1962. After studying drama at and studied drama at Pretoria&#8217;s Tshwane University of Technology, previously known as Technikon Pretoria, he leaped from local stage roles to national screen roles, to turns in international films and series.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Pienaar&#8217;s highest profile role came in 2006, when he was cast as a cameraman in Edward Zwick&#8217;s searing drama <em>Blood Diamond<\/em>. The opportunity allowed Pienaar to play opposite some of the finest actors of his generation, including <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/ew.com\/person\/leonardo-dicaprio\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Leonardo DiCaprio;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Leonardo DiCaprio<\/a>, Djimon Hounsou, and Jennifer Connelly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">But to South Africans, Pienaar was best known for roles in series such as 2009&#8217;s <em>Hopeville <\/em>and the <em>General Hospital<\/em>-esque soap <em>Binnelanders<\/em>, in which Pienaar starred for a season as Leon. He also appeared in Anthony Fabian&#8217;s TIFF-premiering biopic <em>Skin<\/em>, acclaimed Tunisian-French director Abdellatif Kechiche&#8217;s 2010 film <em>Black Venus<\/em>, which competed at the Venice Film Festival, and the drama series <em>Cape Town.<br \/><\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Read the original article on <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/ew.com\/jonathan-pienaar-dead-south-african-actor-blood-diamond-63-11868846\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Entertainment Weekly;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Entertainment Weekly<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jonathan Pienaar, the prolific South African star of films like Blood Diamond and series like Cape Town, has died at the age 63. Pienaar&#8217;s ex-wife, the dancer Rosana Maya, confirmed his death on Nov. 10 with a post to her official Facebook. Over a photo depicting Pienaar clad in leather in medium close-up, Maya wrote, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2199256,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[424529,424528,23666,424530],"class_list":["post-2199255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-blood-diamond","tag-jonathan-pienaar","tag-leonardo-dicaprio","tag-rosana-maya"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Jonathan-Pienaar-South-African-star-of-Blood-Diamond-dies-at.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2199255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2199255"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2199255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2199257,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2199255\/revisions\/2199257"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2199256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2199255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2199255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2199255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}