A Hollywood actor and his two young daughters are feared dead after four bodies were recovered from a plane that crashed into the sea off a Caribbean island Thursday.
Christian Oliver, 51, whose real name is Christian Klepser and who starred in movies such as “Speed Racer,” “The Good German” and “Valkyrie,” was on board the small plane when it experienced difficulties and landed in the ocean, according to the Royal St. Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force.
Among the dead were his daughters, Madita Klepser, 10, and Annik Klepser, 12, and the plane’s pilot and owner, Robert Sachs, police said.
Police said the single-engine plane had just taken off from Becquia, a tiny island popular with tourists and part of the Caribbean nation of St. Vincent and Grenadines, after midday Thursday. It was bound for the island nation of St. Lucia 65 miles to the north.
Days earlier, Oliver had posted a picture of a sunset beach scene to his Instagram account wishing followers a happy new year “from somewhere in paradise.”
Local fishermen and divers rushed to the scene before the Coast Guard recovered four bodies, which were then pronounced dead. The bodies were taken to a mortuary on St. Vincent where post-mortems will officially determine the cause of death.
The police force said it “expresses condolences to all who are negatively affected by this tragic incident.”
Christian Oliver was originally from Frankfurt, Germany. He played a detective in the long-running German TV drama “Alarm für Cobra 11” about a team of highway cops and has a long list of TV and film credits, including “Saved By the Bell: The New Class.”
The actor Bai Ling paid tribute to Oliver in an Instagram post early Friday and said she had been working with Oliver on a movie called “Forever Hold Your Peace” and was due to shoot a scene with him.
IMDB lists Oliver as playing a character called Ivan in the still-in-production movie.
“I cannot express the sorrow I felt when our [director] Nick called me not long ago [to say] that the plane he took had crashed, including his beautiful 2 daughters and the pilot had all passed!” she said.
“He was so nice, works so hard and such a brave actor and a beautiful gentle person, we played lovers in this film, just so so so sad ……. And his daughters were so so young …..”
This story first appeared on NBCNews.com.