Daveigh Chase Dies at 35 After Hospitalization in Los Angeles
Daveigh Chase died at 35, leaving behind a film-and-TV résumé built on two roles that reached very different audiences: Samara Morgan in The Ring and Lilo Pelekai in Disney’s Lilo & Stitch. Her boyfriend said she died on Tuesday after a period that included a Los Angeles hospital admission earlier in June for malnutrition.
The Ring and Lilo & Stitch
Chase was best known for Samara Morgan, the character that drove The Ring and earned her the Best Villain award at the 2003 MTV Movie Awards. She also played Lilo Pelekai in the 2002 animated Lilo & Stitch, then returned to the role in Stitch! The Movie, Lilo & Stitch: The Series and Leroy and Stitch.
That combination mattered because Chase crossed from live-action horror into a franchise built for younger viewers, then added another major credit by voicing Chihiro Ogino in the English dub of Spirited Away. She was not a one-role performer, even if Samara remained the performance most closely tied to her name.
2001 to 2003
Chase’s first major acting role came in 2001 with Donnie Darko, where she played Samantha Darko alongside Jake Gyllenhaal and Maggie Gyllenhaal. By 2002, she had moved into the two parts that defined her public profile, and in 2003 the MTV trophy put a competitive industry stamp on the work.
The sequence is unusually compact: a breakout in 2001, a pair of high-visibility roles in 2002, and an award in 2003. For an actor who started that young, it is the kind of résumé that keeps a name attached to a few fixed touchpoints long after the credits stop rolling.
Los Angeles hospital stay
Earlier in June, Chase was admitted to a Los Angeles hospital because of malnutrition. The reported cause of death was septic issues brought on by meningitis and a blood infection.
For readers who remember her only through The Ring or Lilo & Stitch, the new detail is the medical chain, not another screen credit. Her death closes the public record on a child-star career that moved from indie film to studio animation to an MTV win, and then ended at 35.
