Julia Reilly, who had a short tenure with TNA Wrestling as Claire Lynch, died two months ago.
Her cousin posted to Facebook that Reilly died on April 1, failing to appear at a scheduled event and being discovered at her home. The cousin stated that it was believed she died of natural causes.
Reilly was recruited by TNA in 2012 to play the character of Claire Lynch in an angle involving AJ Styles and Dixie Carter, with Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian as the instigators within the story.
The Claire Lynch character attempted to blackmail Styles by pretending she was pregnant at the urging of Daniels & Kazarian.
It was reported during this time that Reilly quit the company after fans discovered her identity and felt it would affect her career as an actress, and became the target of online vitriol because of the nature of the storyline and its soap opera elements. After leaving wrestling, she never acknowledged her time in TNA or performing weekly on a national cable outlet on Spike TV.
Reilly performed inside Universal Studios (the site of Impact Wrestling’s TV tapings) as Olive Oyl in stage shows of Popeye for park attendees. She also worked as a presenter and voice actor.
A memorial site for Reilly was launched after her death.
