All My Children Star Jeffrey Carlson Dead at 48

The acting world is mourning a tragic loss of a TV trailblazer.

All My Children alum Jeffrey Carlson, who played one of the first transgender characters on daytime television, has died, according to multiple reports. He was 48.

The soap star’s death was first announced publicly by Time Out New York theater editor Adam Feldman. “RIP Jeffrey Carlson, 48, exposed-nerve star of Broadway (Billy in The Goat, Marilyn in Taboo) and TV (the groundbreaking trans character Zoe on All My Children),” he tweeted July 8. “A powerful actor and a painful loss.”

Carlson, a native of Long Beach, Calif., was a graduate of University of California Davis who also studied at New York City’s Juilliard School. He began his acting career onstage, making his Broadway debut in the 2002 play The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?.

In 2003, while continuing his theater career in New York City, Carlson made his onscreen debut with a small role in the indie film Happy End. He later appeared on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and the movie Hitch before he landed his breakout acting role on All My Children.