DuShon Monique Brown, who starred in American dramas including Prison Break and Chicago Fire, has died at the age of 49.
The US actress had played nurse Katie Welch in Prison Break and Connie in Chicago Fire, and had parts in the Amazon adaptation of Philip K Dick's Electric Dreams, the TV series Empire and took on the role of Teresa in a 2013 episode of Shameless.
Her death was confirmed by Cook County medical examiner's office, which revealed she'd died in St James Olympia Field Hospital in Chicago shortly after noon.
DuShon's cause of death is yet to be established, although TMZ reports she was taken to hospital on Friday morning after complaining of feeling unwell.
Law enforcement sources told the site that her family called emergency services who came to her home and brought her in to hospital.
Just a few days previously, the actress had checked herself in to hospital after suffering chest pains. She was given tests and later released.
It's thought she died of a suspected heart attack.
Chicago Fire's executive producer Dick Wolf paid tribute to DuShon in a moving statement.
"The Chicago Fire family is devastated to lose one of its own," he said.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with DuShon's family and we will all miss her."
DuShon herself had recently spoken about her love for her Chicago Fire role, revealing assistant 'Connie' was never supposed to be a permanent fixture on the show.
"She was a noun. She was Secretary and it was a one-liner," the actress told Hidden Remote in 2017.
"What was exciting was it was auditioning for a Chicago show, but it was also the possibility that she could maybe develop into something."
She went on: "Because coincidentally, I started out on another Chicago based-show called Prison Break [where] my character did not have a name. She was called Nurse and she started out on a one-liner. Both of them were characters that were subordinates, telling their immediate supervisors that they had an appointment.
"I'll tell you when I was first cast for it, my character didn't even have a name," she added.
Despite her success in acting, DuShon kept her feet firmly on the ground.
"Even at the red carpet even a couple weeks ago [for One Chicago Day], that was my first red carpet event that I was invited to," she revealed in the same 2017 interview.
"My mom, she fit right in, she was sitting down and talking to everybody like old friends. I walked through the venue, it felt like I was floating through and observing…It was like am I really a part of this? It was okay though, because I got a reality check the next morning when I had to go to work!"
DuShon leaves behind one 14-year-old daughter.
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