All My Children star Paul Avery is killed at 84 alongside his wife in tragic late-night house fire

Former All My Children star Paul Avery and his wife were killed in a heartbreaking house fire earlier this week.

Avery, 84, and his wife Sheila both died in the early morning hours of Tuesday after their home in Blairstown, New Jersey, caught fire, according to WFMZ.

New Jersey State Police reportedly received a call about the fire shortly before 1 a.m., and the house was already ablaze by the time firefighters arrived.

According to the Ridge View Echo – a local newspaper that Avery founded – firefighters were able to remove him and his wife from the home, but both were in critical condition.

Emergency responders administered CPR, but both died shortly after being rescued at the scene.

The cause of the fire is currently under investigation. 

The couple's daughter, Kyle Avery, confirmed her parents' death in an anguished Facebook post later on Tuesday. 

'I’m devastated to share that our parents, Paul and Sheila Garry Avery, passed away early this morning,' she wrote.

'We loved them so much, and they loved us so much, and nobody ever had to wonder if that was so,' Kyle continued, before expressing their gratitude for the Blairstown Fire Department's efforts to save their parents.

Avery's most high-profile work as an actor was in the 1980s, when he played the bartender Hughie on All My Children.

He began the role in 1981 and continued on as a recurring character for 12 years. 

Avery began appearing occasionally in films in the 1970s, and he had a small role as a TV cameraman in the classic 1978 Superman, starring the late Christopher Reeve, Gene Hackman and Margot Kidder.