Daveigh Chase, who voiced Lilo and starred in The Ring as Samara Morgan, dies at 35
The former child star was known for Lilo & Stitch, The Ring and Big Love
Dubai: Daveigh Chase, the actor best known for voicing the title character in Disney's Lilo & Stitch and for playing the eerie Samara Morgan in The Ring, has died at the age of 35.
An early start in showbusiness
Chase was born Daveigh Elizabeth Chase on 24 July 1990 in Las Vegas and grew up in Albany, Oregon. She began working in commercials and stage productions at just seven years old, and by the age of eight had already landed parts on television shows including Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Charmed, The Practice and ER.
In 2001, director Richard Kelly cast her as Samantha Darko in Donnie Darko, starring opposite Jake Gyllenhaal in what would go on to become a cult classic.
Voicing two unforgettable characters
That same year, Chase voiced Chihiro Ogino in the English-language dub of Studio Ghibli's Spirited Away. It was 2002, however, that truly defined her early career. She voiced the title character in Disney's Lilo & Stitch, playing an orphaned girl from Hawaii who unknowingly adopts an alien disguised as a stray dog. The role carried her through the franchise's sequels and into the animated series that ran from 2003 to 2006.
That same year also brought a role that pushed her in a completely different direction. Chase played Samara Morgan, the pale, dark-haired ghost at the centre of Gore Verbinski's horror hit The Ring. The performance, delivered when she was just 12 years old, became so closely associated with the film that the character remains one of horror cinema's most recognisable figures.
Continued work through television
Chase continued working steadily in television over the following decade. From 2006 to 2011, she played Rhonda Volmer, a calculating teenager, on HBO's Big Love. In 2009, she returned to the Donnie Darko universe, reprising her role as Samantha in the spinoff film S. Darko.
Her final screen role came in 2016, in director Thomas Dekker's horror film Jack Goes Home, after which she largely stepped away from acting.
Her life away from the screen
In a GoFundMe post, a person named Hernandez wrote about some of the harder chapters of Chase's life outside of acting, referencing bullying she had experienced and a rift with her family. He described her struggle to find stability and safety while living in downtown Los Angeles, while also noting that the two of them had shared genuine moments of happiness together before her health began to decline.
According to TMZ, Chase had been hospitalised earlier in the month for malnutrition, shortly before the infections that ultimately led to her death.
Chase leaves behind a body of work that spans some of the most memorable family and horror titles of the early 2000s, from the warmth of Lilo & Stitch to the lingering unease of The Ring, work that continues to resonate with audiences who grew up watching her on screen.
