The Ring Star Daveigh Chase Dead at 35

Daveigh Chase, the actress who became a household name voicing Lilo in Disney’s beloved“Lilo&Stitch”and terrifying audiences as Samara Morgan in the horror classic“The Ring,”has died at 35. According to her boyfriend Roy Hernandez, Chase passed away on Tuesday from meningitis and a blood infection that triggered septic shock and organ failure. She had been admitted to a Los Angeles hospital earlier this month due to malnutrition.

Chase’s career trajectory was the kind most child actors dream of. She broke through in 2002 with dual powerhouse roles—the spirited voice of Lilo in“Lilo&Stitch”and its subsequent television series, and the unforgettable on-screen performance as the vengeful spirit in“The Ring,”which earned her an MTV Movie Award for Best Villain. She also lent her voice to Chihiro Ogino in the American dub of Hayao Miyazaki’s“Spirited Away,”cementing her place across multiple entertainment mediums before most people reach drinking age.

Beyond her marquee roles, Chase built a steady working career in television. Beginning in 2006, she appeared in 32 episodes of HBO’s“Big Love,”playing Rhonda Volmer throughout the show’s five-season run. Her credits span everything from“Donnie Darko”and“Beethoven’s 5th”to guest spots on“Sabrina the Teenage Witch,”“ER,”and“Mercy.”This was a working actress, not a one-hit wonder—someone who understood the grind of sustaining a career in an industry that chews up and spits out child stars.

Yet Chase’s life after her early successes proved complicated. The article notes she had multiple run-ins with the law over the years, a detail that hints at struggles that never made the same headlines as her film roles. The combination of early fame, the pressures of child stardom, and whatever personal battles followed remain largely private—but the trajectory from household name to hospitalization for malnutrition speaks to a quiet, painful disconnect between the actress the world knew and the person behind the roles.

Chase’s family has established a GoFundMe in her memory. For those who grew up with her voice as Lilo’s adventurous spirit or her chilling presence in“The Ring,”the loss marks the end of a chapter that began with tremendous promise and unfolds as a reminder of how fragile celebrity can be, and how invisible suffering often is.