The Ring and Lilo & Stitch actress Daveigh Chase dies aged 35
Daveigh Chase, the horror actress who crawled out of a TV in The Ring and voiced Lilo in Disney’s animated Lilo & Stitch, has died aged 35.
Chase, who also voiced Chihiro in the English version of Spirited Away and starred in the cable drama Big Love, died from sepsis after suffering from meningitis in a Los Angeles hospital, her manager John Ryan Jr confirmed to BBC News.
Ryan said on Wednesday that Chase had been admitted to hospital for malnourishment before her death.
The former child star began acting at 4 years old, booking her first Hollywood job when she was 7, but she retired from acting full time in 2015, he said.
“She was the greatest. She loved cats. She worked with cat rescues with us. She was very to herself, ” said Ryan, her friend and manager of 15 years, noting that Chase would often retreat to her home in Las Vegas for years at a time and turn down big studio films to do independent projects.
“She was not very Hollywood,” he said. “She’d rather eat at Bob’s Big Boy and go home with the cats. She loved acting but wasn’t into the fame scene.”
Chase, who kept homes in Nevada and downtown Los Angeles, started acting in Las Vegas around age 4 doing voiceover work and theatre.
She landed her first TV role in Hollywood at age 7, booking a small part in the popular Melissa Joan Hart-led American sitcom Sabrina The Teenage Witch.
Her Hollywood breakthrough came in 2001 when she appeared as Samantha Darko in Donnie Darko and later played the titular character’s sister in the 2009 film S Darko.
Chase was further immortalised in film in 2002 as Samara Morgan, the long-haired ghost that crawls out of the telly – in the horror film The Ring – an American remake of the Japanese classic about a videotape that makes people die after they watch it.
She earned a 2003 MTV Movie Award for best villain for her turn as the spooky demon-like character, that crawls on her hands and feet before killing victims.
Chase said she had fun playing such an evil character.
“It is not your typical character. Usually they are looking for a happy-go-lucky kid, but Samara was a pretty interesting character to play. I just kind of took my own voice and put this freaky twist on it,” she told the Los Angeles Times in 2002.
That same year, she voiced the Elvis-adoring Hawaiian girl Lilo in the animated hit Lilo & Stitch. The part earned her an Annie Award for best voice acting in an animated feature production and she continued to voice the character in later spin-offs.
Her resume also includes single-episode roles in the TV dramas Charmed, ER and Touched by an Angel. Chase also had a 32-episode stint in the HBO polygamy drama Big Love, playing child bride Rhonda Volmer.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Chase had a slew of legal run-ins later in life, including being charged with drug possession and joyriding in a stolen car.
