She loved acting but wasn't into the fame scene
Chase became a child star at age 4, achieving breakthrough roles in Donnie Darko (2001) and The Ring (2002), earning an MTV Movie Award. She voiced Lilo in the 2002 Disney hit Lilo & Stitch and appeared in HBO's Big Love, but retired from full-time acting in 2015.
- Daveigh Chase died at 35 from sepsis following meningitis
- She played Samara Morgan in The Ring (2002) and voiced Lilo in Lilo & Stitch (2002)
- Chase began acting at age 4 and retired from full-time acting in 2015
- She was hospitalized for malnourishment before her death
- She earned an MTV Movie Award in 2003 for best villain
Daveigh Chase, known for The Ring and voicing Lilo in Disney's Lilo & Stitch, died at 35 from sepsis following meningitis in a Los Angeles hospital.
Daveigh Chase, the actress who became a fixture in early-2000s horror and animation, died on Wednesday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. She was 35. The cause was sepsis, which developed after she contracted meningitis. Her longtime manager, John Ryan Jr., confirmed the death to the BBC and noted that Chase had been hospitalized for malnourishment in the weeks before her condition deteriorated.
Chase's career began almost before she could walk. At four years old, she was already working in Las Vegas doing voiceover and theater work. By seven, she had landed a small role on Sabrina the Teenage Witch, the Melissa Joan Hart sitcom that dominated late-1990s television. But it was the early 2000s that would define her in the public imagination. In 2001, she played Samantha Darko in Donnie Darko, the cult film that would later spawn a sequel in which she reprised the role. That same year, she took on the part that would become her most iconic: Samara Morgan, the pale, long-haired ghost in The Ring, the American adaptation of the Japanese horror film about a cursed videotape. The role earned her an MTV Movie Award for best villain in 2003. She was still a teenager.
In interviews at the time, Chase spoke about the appeal of playing against type. "Usually they are looking for a happy-go-lucky kid," she told the Los Angeles Times in 2002, "but Samara was a pretty interesting character to play." That same year, she lent her voice to Lilo in Disney's Lilo & Stitch, the animated film about a Hawaiian girl who befriends an alien. The performance earned her an Annie Award and led to voice work on several spin-offs. Her television credits accumulated steadily: guest spots on Charmed, ER, and Touched by an Angel, and a more substantial role as Rhonda Volmer, a child bride, in HBO's Big Love, where she appeared in 32 episodes.
But Chase's relationship with Hollywood was complicated. Ryan, who had managed her for 15 years, described her as fundamentally private, someone who resisted the machinery of fame even as she worked within it. She preferred independent films to studio projects. She kept homes in Las Vegas and downtown Los Angeles, and would retreat to Nevada for extended periods. "She was not very Hollywood," Ryan 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." He noted that she was devoted to animal rescue work, particularly with cats.
In 2015, Chase stepped away from full-time acting. In the years that followed, her life became less visible to the public. Legal troubles emerged—charges related to drug possession and joyriding in a stolen vehicle—but the details of her private struggles remained largely unknown. By the time she was hospitalized for malnourishment, the child star who had once been everywhere on screens had become someone most people had stopped thinking about. She died in a hospital bed, far from the spotlight that had found her so early and held her for so long.
Citas Notables
She was not very Hollywood. 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.— John Ryan Jr., her manager of 15 years
Samara was a pretty interesting character to play. I just kind of took my own voice and put this freaky twist on it.— Daveigh Chase, on playing the villain in The Ring
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
What strikes you most about her trajectory—the rise or the fade?
Both, really. She was working at an age when most kids are learning to read. By her twenties, she'd already done the work that would define her forever. The Ring, Lilo & Stitch—those are permanent cultural touchstones. But she seemed to want out of that world almost as soon as she could claim it.
Her manager said she preferred Bob's Big Boy to studio dinners. That's a specific kind of rejection.
It is. It's not that she didn't love acting. It's that she didn't want to be a product. She wanted to work on her own terms, live quietly, rescue cats. That's a choice, but it's also a kind of loneliness—stepping away from the industry that made you famous means stepping away from the machinery that keeps you visible, keeps you connected.
The hospitalization for malnourishment troubles me. That suggests something deeper than just wanting privacy.
Yes. By the time she was admitted, something had gone wrong. Whether it was isolation, illness, circumstance, or some combination—we don't know. But a 35-year-old woman doesn't end up malnourished by accident. The manager's portrait of her is warm, but it also hints at someone who was increasingly alone.
Do you think the early fame damaged her?
I think early fame damages everyone differently. Some people need it. She seemed to need the opposite—to be left alone. The tragedy is that she got her wish, but perhaps too completely.