She gave Lilo her voice, crawled out of a television and haunted a generation — and now the world has lost her far too soon. Daveigh Chase, the actress and voice performer whose work defined some of the most beloved and terrifying films of the early 2000s, has died aged 35 after a short but devastating illness.
Chase died on Tuesday from meningitis and a blood infection that led to sepsis, her boyfriend Roy Hernandez confirmed to TMZ. She had been admitted to a hospital in Los Angeles earlier this month due to malnutrition. She was 35 years old.
A Career That Started at Four Years Old
Born in Las Vegas on 24 July 1990, Chase began acting almost before she could read, doing voiceover work and theatre in Nevada from around the age of four. By seven, she had landed her first Hollywood television role — a small part in the Melissa Joan Hart-led sitcom Sabrina the Teenage Witch — and the industry quickly sat up and took notice.
Her breakthrough came in 2001 with Donnie Darko, where she played Samantha Darko, but it was 2002 that cemented her place in pop culture history. That single year, she delivered two iconic performances that could not have been more different: voicing the spirited, Elvis-obsessed Hawaiian girl Lilo in Disney's Lilo & Stitch, and terrifying cinema audiences worldwide as Samara Morgan — the long-haired, crawling ghost at the centre of horror phenomenon The Ring.
"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."
Her turn as Samara earned her a 2003 MTV Movie Award for Best Villain, while her vocal performance as Lilo — which she reprised across the follow-up TV series and spin-offs — won her an Annie Award for best voice acting in an animated feature. That same year, she also voiced Chihiro Ogino in the English-language dub of Studio Ghibli's Spirited Away, a film now widely regarded as one of the greatest animated works ever made. For a child actress, it was a staggering run.
From Disney to HBO — and a Life Away From the Spotlight
Chase's entertainment career continued through the mid-2000s with a significant recurring role in HBO's critically acclaimed drama Big Love, where she played child bride Rhonda Volmer across 32 episodes over the show's five-season run. Her credits also span ER, Charmed, Touched by an Angel, and Beethoven's 5th.
But Chase was, by all accounts, never at ease with fame itself. Her manager and friend of 15 years, John Ryan Jr, painted a picture of a woman who preferred cats and quiet over Hollywood's glare, telling the BBC she retired from full-time acting in 2015 and would often retreat to her home in Las Vegas for years at a time, turning down major studio projects in favour of independent work.
"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."
Ryan also described Chase's work with cat rescue organisations as something she cared deeply about. "She was the greatest. She loved cats. She was very to herself," he said.
A Final, Heartbreaking Chapter
In the weeks before her death, Hernandez had set up a GoFundMe page describing the difficult road Chase had travelled privately. He wrote that she had faced a painful falling out with her family, experienced bullying, and struggled to find stability in downtown Los Angeles. The pair had found comfort in each other, he said, and he had hoped to give her somewhere safe to spend her final days. The fundraiser had raised £1,300 of its £5,500 target at the time of her death.
Chase had also faced legal difficulties in later years, including charges of drug possession and joyriding in a stolen vehicle, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
She leaves behind a film legacy that touched millions — as a demon, a dreamer and a Disney icon all in the same extraordinary year. She was 35.
