Daveigh Chase, a former child actress, has died at age 35 due to complications with meningitis. She is recognized for her roles in Lilo & Stitch and the horror film The Ring.
Daveigh Chase/ Getty
John Ryan was her long-time manager and he confirmed on Wednesday that the actress died in a LA hospital. Daveigh Chase succumbed to sepsis as per the medical records after a severe case of meningitis. The records further show that the actor had earlier been admitted for acute malnutrition at the same hospital.
Early Life and Career Breakthrough
Chase was born in Las Vegas, Nevada, and she started acting when she was just 4 years old, doing theater plays and commercial voiceovers. At age seven, she was cast as a guest star in the situational comedy Sabrina the Teenage Witch.
In 2001, she played Samanth Darko in the cult drama Donnie Drako marking a significant career breakthrough in feature films. Later, she tapped for the sequel S. Dark in 2009, this time as the primary character.
On top of that, Chase performance in The Ring, in 2002, had given her extensive industry recognition. The movie was an American remake of the Japanese horror film Ringu. Moreover, Chase played as Samara Morgan, an evil ghost with long hair who lived on TV screens and would frequently emerge to terrorize victims in their homes.
Chase portrayed Samara so well that she won the award for Best Villain at the 2003 MTV Movie Awards. In a 2002 interview with the Los Angeles Time, Chase noted that this was unlike any other roles available to young actors.
She said that it was not a standard character: “Usually, they are in search for a happy go kid, but Samara was an amazing character to get to play. I just kind of took my own voice and put this freaky twist on it.”
Lilo & Stitch
About the same Chase started building a broad portfolio of animation and voice acting roles. In 2002, she voiced Lilo Pelekai, a Hawaiian protagonist in Disney’s Lilo & Stitch. This feature was a box-office hit and earned Chase global recognition. She won an Annie Award for Outstanding Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production for the role.
Additionally, she performed as a voice character in many other TV spin-offs and direct-to-video sequels. One notable one is the North American remake of Spirited Away by Studio Ghibili. Chase provided the English narration for Chihiro.
TV and Retirement
In her later years, Chase’s TV portfolio grew to include prime-time dramas like ER, Charmed, and Touched by an Angel. HBO’s Big Love was her the biggest of her TV tenure, a show about polygamy in a Mormon family. She played as Rhonda Volmer.
In the early 2010s, Chase began to gradually withdraw from Hollywood circles, and by 2015, she fully retired from professional acting. In her entire adult life, she lived between two homes in downtown LA and Las Vegas.
On the other hand, Ryan has described her as extremely committed to staying away from Hollywood’s social dynamics. She could choose to eat at Bob’s Big Boy and go home with the cats.
“She was the greatest,” he says. “She just loved cats. Chase performed with cat rescues with us and she was a bit quiet to herself.” The manager who worked for Chase for 15 years says that sometimes she would reject major studio films for indie film projects that aligned with her personal interests.
In A Nutshell
In her later years, Chase had a few run-ins with the law. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the actress was charged with illegal drug possession and joyriding in a stolen car. Memorial arrangements have not yet been publicly finalized by her family or estate.