Dieter Brummer made such an impact during his stint on Home and Away it took close to five months and more than 7,500 auditions to fill the void when he left.
The '90s heartthrob's oldest friend, Rob, returned to his Glenhaven home in Sydney's north on Tuesday to begin the devastating task of sorting through his belongings.
Brummer was found dead inside the home he shared with his parents on Saturday after police were asked to perform a welfare check on the actor-turned-window washer.
The 45-year-old stepped away from the spotlight and ran a commercial window cleaning business which he referred to as his Plan B career.
Dieter Brummer made such an impact during his stint on Home and Away it took close to five months and more than 1,700 auditions to fill the void when he left
A resurfaced interview shows late Home and Away star Dieter Brummer revealing why fame never went to his head despite being named 'Australia's favourite actor' in the '90s
But the company was struggling, made worse by citywide Covid lockdowns which deemed the work he performed non-essential.
Rob, his best mate of more than 30 years, tearfully told Daily Mail Australia that Brummer was the brightest, most intelligent person he'd ever known.
He said Brummer's death was still too raw to talk about, but that he understood why it had broken the collective hearts of a generation of Aussies who grew up with posters of the teenage Home and Away heartthrob Blu-Tacked to their walls.
'My wife had [the posters] too growing up,' he said, smiling through glassy eyes at the memory.
Rob met Brummer when he was 11 - four years before he was cast in the television soap - and said from the outset he 'was just the best mate'.
The '90s heartthrob's oldest friend, Rob, returned to his Glenhaven home in Sydney's north (pictured) on Tuesday to begin the devastating task of sorting through his belongings
He brought so much to his role as Shane Parrish between 1992 and 1996 on the long-running soap that it took industry experts months to fill the void after he left. Pictured with Emily Symons during filming
'I can't say anything other than that he was the greatest person I knew. Intelligent, bright, just so good.'
He brought so much to his role as Shane Parrish between 1992 and 1996 on the long-running soap that it took industry experts months to fill the void after he left.
Danny Rizk was working at Mullinars - the casting agency which gave Brummer his big break - when word spread that he'd been written out of the show.
'They had to find an alternate,' he said. 'It took the respected unit at Mullinars four and a half months and over 7,500 auditionees to fill that void.
'Of all the deaths in the creative services business, this one has unnerved me... To anyone reading this, mental illness is not a hoax. It is significant on every border because it truly eats away at one's core.'
Brummer appeared in a total of 557 episodes of Home and Away, winning Most Popular Actor at the Logie Awards in 1995 and
