Daveigh Chase, Horror Actress and Voice of Lilo, Dies at 35

Daveigh Chase, the horror actress who crawled out of a TV in The Ring and voiced Lilo in Disney's animated Lilo & Stitch, died this month of AIDS, according to a medical examiner's report. Chase, who also voiced Chihiro in the English version of Spirited Away and starred in the cable drama Big Love, passed away at a hospital on 16 June at the age of 35. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner listed "chronic polysubstance use" - use of multiple drugs - under "other significant conditions", ruling her death to be "natural". Chase's father, John David Schwallier, has told the New York Times she had been homeless and living in LA with her boyfriend before her death. Chase's manager, John Ryan Jr, told the BBC last week she had died from sepsis after suffering from meningitis in an LA hospital. The former child star, who was also known as Daveigh Schwallier, began acting at four years old, booking her first Hollywood job when she was seven, but she retired from acting full time in 2015, her manager said. Her first TV role in Hollywood at age seven was a small part in the popular Melissa Joan Hart-led sitcom Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Chase's Hollywood breakthrough came in 2001 when she appeared as Samantha Darko in Donnie Darko and later played the titular character's sister in the 2009 film S Darko. In 2002, Chase starred as Samara Morgan, the long-haired ghost that crawls out of the telly in the horror film The Ring, an American remake of the Japanese classic about a videotape that makes people die after they watch it. She earned a 2003 MTV Movie Award for best villain for her turn as the spooky demon-like character that crawls on its hands and feet before killing victims. Also in 2002, she voiced the Elvis-adoring Hawaiian girl Lilo in the animated hit Lilo & Stitch. The part earned her an Annie Award for best voice acting in an animated feature production and she continued to voice the character in spin-offs. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Chase had a slew of legal run-ins later in life, including being charged with drug possession and joyriding in a stolen car.

Chase's father described her as having been homeless and living with her boyfriend in LA before her death, while her manager attributed her death to complications from meningitis and sepsis, contrasting with the medical examiner's report of natural causes due to chronic polysubstance use.