Daveigh Chase, the former child actor best known for voicing Lilo in Disney’s “Lilo & Stitch” and portraying the haunting figure Samara in “The Ring,” has died at age 35.
Chase died following complications from meningitis and a blood infection that led to sepsis, her boyfriend told TMZ, which first reported the news. She had reportedly been hospitalized earlier this month for malnutrition before her condition deteriorated.
Chase rose to prominence in the early 2000s with two defining roles that became part of millennial pop culture: the optimistic voice of Lilo in Disney’s 2002 animated hit “Lilo & Stitch,” and the chilling antagonist in the horror film “The Ring,” a performance that earned her an MTV Movie Award for Best Villain.
She also appeared in projects including “Donnie Darko,” HBO’s “Big Love,” and provided voice work for the English-language version of Studio Ghibli’s “Spirited Away.” Her acting career slowed in the mid-2010s, and she had largely stepped back from Hollywood in recent years.
News of her death prompted an outpouring of tributes from fans who remembered her as both a defining childhood voice and one of early-2000s cinema’s most recognizable young actors.
