Hollywood has lost one of its most distinctive child talents. Daveigh Chase, who voiced Lilo in Disney’s original animated movie Lilo & Stitch and terrified audiences as Samara Morgan in “The Ring,” died on Tuesday in Los Angeles.
Chase had been admitted to a hospital in Los Angeles earlier this month due to malnutrition. She died from meningitis and an infection in her blood, which caused septic issues and led to her body shutting down, according to those close to her.
Days before her death was confirmed, her boyfriend had launched a GoFundMe fundraiser, writing that Chase had been diagnosed with meningitis and several serious blood infections and that her condition had become critical, with doctors warning she may not have much time left.
Her longtime friend and manager, John Ryan Jr., confirmed the news to BBC News, struggling to find words adequate to the loss. “She was the greatest. She loved cats. She worked with cat rescues with us. She was very quiet to herself,” he said. “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.”
Born in Las Vegas and raised in Albany, Oregon, Chase’s first acting credits came when she was just seven years old, appearing in commercials. She won the role of Lilo the following year, at the age of eight.
That role would define a generation. For voicing Lilo Pelekai, the young Hawaiian protagonist in Disney’s “Lilo & Stitch,” she won an Annie Award for outstanding voice acting in an animated feature production and went on to lend her voice to several spinoffs.
But it was not her only landmark role that year. Also in 2002, Chase appeared in Gore Verbinski’s horror hit “The Ring.” As Samara Morgan, the lank-haired little girl dressed in white and possessing deadly supernatural powers, Chase, at just 12 years old, became the ghostly face of the film and its most recognizable character.
She was named Best Villain at the 2003 MTV Movie Awards, beating out formidable competition, including Willem Dafoe, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Colin Farrell.
That same year, Chase also voiced Chihiro Ogino in the American dub of Studio Ghibli’s celebrated “Spirited Away,” a remarkable trifecta of iconic performances from a single twelve-year-old.
Chase’s career extended well beyond those landmark roles. From 2006 to 2011, she recurred on HBO’s “Big Love” as young sociopath Rhonda Volmer, and in 2009, she reprised her role as Samantha Darko in “S. Darko,” the sequel to “Donnie Darko.” Her last acting roles came in 2016.
Throughout her acting career, Chase also starred in “Beethoven’s 5th,” “Sabrina the Teenage Witch,” “ER,” and “Mercy.”
Behind the celebrated roles lay a life marked by considerable hardship. Her father confirmed her death to the New York Times, saying that she had been homeless and living in Los Angeles with her boyfriend and that she had been struggling with drugs since the age of 13.
Her boyfriend acknowledged in the GoFundMe page that Chase had a “difficult childhood and a painful falling out with her family,” adding that she “struggled to find safety and happiness in downtown L.A.” He wrote: “When we met, I promised to protect her and give her the love and comfort she deserved. Together, we found moments of happiness and hope.”
Her manager’s words paint the picture of a woman who, despite the enormity of her cultural footprint, never quite belonged to the world that made her famous. She loved animals. She shunned the spotlight. She was, by all accounts, gentle.
Daveigh Chase leaves behind a body of work that shaped childhoods on multiple continents and a generation of horror fans who will never look at a television screen quite the same way. She was 35 years old.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
Daveigh Chase, the talented actress who gave voice to Disney‘s beloved Lilo and sent chills down spines as Samara Morgan in The Ring, died on June 16, 2026, at just 35 years old, far too soon for someone who had gifted the world so much.
Her death, caused by meningitis and sepsis following hospitalization for severe malnutrition, was as heartbreaking as it was preventable.
