Charlbi Dean, the South African actress and model who passed away suddenly in August, died of a bacterial infection.
The 32-year-old “Triangle of Sadness” star’s cause of death was revealed to be “bacterial sepsis,” the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner confirmed to USA TODAY Wednesday. Dean’s death was ruled an accident.
According to the medical examiner’s office, the bacteria that caused the sepsis was capnocytophaga.
A type of bacteria that lives in the mouths of dogs and cats, capnocytophaga can spread to people through bites, scratches, or close contact from a dog or cat, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Immunocompromised individuals are at a greater risk of becoming ill from bacterial contact.
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Dean’s case of sepsis complicated her asplenia, a condition in which the spleen is absent or not functioning properly, which was “due to remote blunt force trauma of torso,” per the medical examiner. Dean’s brother, Alex Jacobs, told Rolling Stone in August that Dean was in a “very, very bad car accident” in 2009 that resulted in her spleen being removed.
Dean died at a hospital in New York City, a source familiar with the situation but not authorized to speak publicly confirmed to USA TODAY on Aug. 30. At the time, her death was reported as being due to an unexpected, sudden illness.
Born Charlbi Dean Kriek in Cape Town, where she was also raised, Dean began modeling as a child, making frequent appearances on fashion runways and magazine covers in the decades that followed.
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She made her acting debut in the 2010 film “Spud,” an adaptation of a popular South African novel about a boys’ boarding school starring Australian pop singer Troye Sivan and John Cleese. She reprised her role in a 2013 sequel.
In “Triangle of Sadness,” the first English-language film from Swedish “Force Majeure” director Ruben Östlund, Dean and Harris Dickinson play a celebrity fashion-model couple on a cruise for the ultra-rich that descends into chaos. It also stars Woody Harrelson as the ship’s captain.
The film won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in May.
“I’ve already won. I’m already at Cannes with the movie,” Dean told The Associated Press prior to the film’s Cannes win. “That’s so unbelievable. Anything is just a cherry on top at this point for me, you know?”
Dean also had a recurring role as the assassin Syonide on the DC Comics television series “Black Lightning,” which aired on the CW from 2018 to 2021.
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Contributing: Staff and wire reports
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Charlbi Dean: ‘Triangle of Sadness’ actress died of ‘bacterial sepsis’
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