Sarah Goldberg, who starred in the television series “7th Heaven” and the film “Jurassic Park III,” has died. She was 40.
Goldberg died in her sleep of natural causes on Sept. 27 at her family’s cabin in Wisconsin, her mother Judy Goldberg told the Chicago Sun-Times. She said a heart ailment is suspected, although an autopsy failed to determine the exact cause of death.
“She went to sleep and didn’t wake up,” she said.
Goldberg’s entertainment career started as a bumblebee in a Chicago City Ballet production of “Cinderella,” her mother said, and gained momentum when she was asked to be an extra on the Julia Roberts movie “My Best Friend’s Wedding.” She got the role because her mother co-owned a company providing table linens for a set. A film staffer saw her helping arrange tablecloths and asked her to be in a scene, her mother said.
Goldberg went on to appear in television series including “90210,” ”Judging Amy,” ”The Beast,” and “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.” She also played a college student looking for drugs in the Denzel Washington movie “Training Day.”
In “7th Heaven” she played Jewish medical student Sarah Glass Camden who fell in love with the son of a Christian pastor from 2002 to 2006.
The actress, who received a degree in biology from Amherst College, was planning to become a doctor but pursued acting instead after working as a wedding-scene extra on the 1997 Julia Roberts comedy My Best Friend’s Wedding.
Goldberg lived in Santa Monica, California, and, at the time of her death, was visiting her family in the Chicago area to celebrate the Jewish High Holy Days.
