Daveigh Chase, Star of ‘The Ring’, ‘Lilo & Stitch’, Dies at 35

Former child actor Daveigh Chase, best known for her roles in Lilo & Stitch and The Ring, has died. She was 35.

Chase died Tuesday in a Los Angeles hospital, her father, John Schwallier, confirmed. Schwallier said in a text message to NBC News that his daughter died at the Los Angeles General Medical Center of complications of bacterial meningitis and a blood infection. He added that she was suffering from severe malnutrition. She was homeless and living in Los Angeles near the hospital in which she passed away, according to her father.

Chase starred in Disney’s hit movie Lilo & Stitch in 2002 as the voice of the film’s lead character, Lilo. She also lent her voice to the character in the television series adaptation of the film, entitleed Lilo & Stitch: The Series between 2003 and 2006.

Another of her iconic roles was as the terrifying ghost child Samara, who would haunt viewers of a cursed VHS tape. The film was The Ring, which released in 2002, a role for which she won the MTV Movie Awards for Best Villain. She would reprise that role in 2005 for The Ring Two.

The New York Times reported that Chase was living with her boyfriend before her death, but her father was unclear what the extent of his daughter’s relationship was with the man. “I don’t know how much of a boyfriend he was to her,” he said in a text message. “I saw a video of her in September. I don’t know why he wasn’t getting her medical help then.”

John Ryan Jr., who managed Chase for 15 years, said she was one of his “best friends for almost 20 years,” and that she was “the easiest celebrity” he ever worked with. Ryan had searching for Chase along with her stepsister Gaia Brown been searching for Chase through a private investigator months before a video of Chase lying in a tent or trailer on Los Angeles’ Skid Row surfaced.

Ryan said he and Brown planned to nurse Chase back to health in LA before getting her to a rehab facility in Costa Rica owned by a friend he knew.

“We were so close to finding her,” he said in an interview with The Post. “Daveigh was the sweetest and brightest light in Hollywood. I can’t believe this is real. Her legacy and work will live on forever.”

Chase’s career declined in 2016 when she stepped away from the spotlight due to the pressures of early fame. She suffered with severe drug addiction. Between 2017 and 2018, she had several run-ins with the law, including drug possession and driving a stolen vehicle—this, despite her apparently having had millions of dollars in unclaimed residuals from her work as a child star sitting in a trust account.

There is a GoFundMe account set up by Chase’s boyfriend to pay for her funeral and hospital expenses, but Ryan has made the public statement, via Deadline, that there is plenty of money for such things and there is no need for a GoFundMe campaign.