The Ring and Disney actress Daveigh Chase dies aged 35 after health crisis
Daveigh Chase (Image: Getty Images)
Daveigh Chase, the actress best known for voicing Lilo in Disney’s Lilo & Stitch and playing Samara Morgan in The Ring, has died aged 35 after being hospitalised in Los Angeles.
Chase voiced Lilo in the 2002 animated film Lilo & Stitch, as well as its spin-off TV series and 2003’s Stitch! The Movie. She also played the ghostly Samara Morgan in 2002’s The Ring, a role that made her a defining horror image of the era.
Roy Hernandez, who claims to have been Chase’s boyfriend since around 2019, confirmed her death to TMZ. Hernandez said she died after developing sepsis linked to meningitis and an infection in her blood. She had been hospitalised for malnutrition, and was admitted to an LA hospital earlier in June before her condition deteriorated.
Daveigh Chase’s life and career
Chase’s two major 2002 roles made her a rare pop culture touchstone, tied both to childhood comfort viewing and to one of the most enduring horror villains of the 2000s.
Lilo & Stitch has had a long afterlife as a Disney franchise, keeping her voice work in circulation for new audiences.
She also worked in live-action film and television beyond her breakout roles, but became far less visible in the 2010s.
Her final roles were in 2016, on the video game Let It Die and in the movies Jack Goes Home, and American Romance.
After retreating from the public eye, Chase was involved in a handful of legal issues. In February 2017, she was detained and questioned by the LAPD after taking an unresponsive man, who was later pronounced dead from a suspected drug overdose, to a hospital.
Then, in November 2017 she was arrested in LA for a felony after she was found riding as a passenger in a vehicle which was reported stolen.
In August the following year, she was arrested on for a misdemeanour relating to drug possession. In November of the same year she was officially charged with two misdemeanours for possession of a controlled substance without a valid prescription and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Fundraising appeals and doubts
Hernandez launched a fundraising appeal in the weeks before Chase’s death. In one, he wrote: “Daveigh Chase, my girlfriend, has always been a light in my life… But behind the scenes, she’s faced more than her share of hardship.”
He added: “Recently, everything changed. Daveigh was diagnosed with meningitis and several serious blood infections. Her condition has become critical, and the doctors have told me she may not have much time left. All she ever wanted was a place where we could live together, feel safe, and be happy.”
However, reports from TMZ claim friends were suspicious of Hernandez. Chase’s former manager told the outlet: “A man claiming to be Daveigh’s boyfriend has launched a GoFundMe page purportedly on behalf of Daveigh and her family. Neither her family nor her close friends know who this person is.”
He added that Chase had a “SAG trust account with more than enough funds to cover all medical and related expenses”.
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