The Last of Usactress Annie Wersching has died from cancer at the age of 45. The news comes only a week after her character made an appearance in HBO’s adaptation ofThe Last of Us, and her passing was announced in a statement from her husband.
Although known for her performances in24,Bosch, andTimeless, gamers will best know Wersching for her performance asTheresa “Tess” Servopoulos inThe Last of Us, a role for which she did motion-capture and voice acting. Geoff Keighley first teased the existence of Tess on his Twitter account shortly before the character featured in a trailer shown during the 2012 Spike Video Game Awards. Wersching also voiced a minor character, Tassyn, in Bioware’sAnthem.
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Following a statement from her husband, Stephen Full, the official Twitter account of The Game Awards announced that “Annie Wersching… has sadly passed away from cancer at the age of 45.” A follow-up tweet noted that aGoFundMe has been establishedto support her family, particularly her three boys who are between 4 and 12 years old. Details on the page reveal that Wersching “was diagnosed with cancer Summer of 2020,” and that the news made her even more private than she had already been in an attempt to “protect her boys,” and “live her life, on her terms, and be with her family.”
Tributes have since poured in from devastated fans, colleagues, and friends. Troy Baker,who voiced protagonist Joel Miller inThe Last of Us, wrote “Annie, so much of Tess is what you imbued into the character.” Joel and Tess are shown to be smuggling partners following a time-jump that occurs after the prologue, developing a ruthless reputation within the Boston black market that has been built up since the Cordyceps outbreak. If it was not for Tess being attacked by Robert’s hired thugs on one fateful day, the pair would have likely never met Ellie.
The Last of Usis currently streaming on HBOand the third episode is due to release today. Last week saw Anna Torv take on the role of Tess in a performance that has been universally celebrated. Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey have seamlessly adopted the personas of Joel and Ellie respectively in a show that has everyone from critics to fans encapsulated, another footnote inThe Last of Us' incredible legacy, which Wersching played no small part in.
