Daveigh Chase, 'Lilo & Stitch' voice actor and 'The Ring' villain, dies at 35

Daveigh Chase, an actor known for voicing the character of Lilo in the hit animated film “Lilo & Stitch” and for her deeply unnerving turn as the child villain Samara in the horror movie “The Ring,” died on June 16 in Los Angeles. She was 35.

Her death, in a hospital, was confirmed by her father, John David Schwallier, who said the cause was complications of bacterial meningitis and a blood infection. Schwallier said his daughter had been homeless and living in Los Angeles with her boyfriend near the hospital where she died.

“Lilo & Stitch,” released in 2002 when Chase was almost 12, told the story of an orphaned Hawaiian girl, Lilo, who brings home an impish blue space alien, Stitch, from the dog pound. Much wackiness ensues.

The Disney film was a hit, grossing more than $274 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo (roughly $500 million when adjusting for inflation). And Chase, who had brought the plucky Lilo to life, won a Young Artist Academy Award for best performance in a voice-over role, age 10 or younger.

Her breakout role, however, was in the live-action thriller “The Ring,” released in the United States roughly four months later, alongside Naomi Watts. Chase played Samara, a long-haired mystery girl who terrorized unsuspecting viewers of a certain VHS tape.

The film, a remake of a Japanese film, “Ringu,” received mixed reviews, but the image of Samara crawling through a blurry television screen became seared in the cultural memory, and Chase won the award for best villain at the 2003 MTV Movie Awards.

That year, she returned to Lilo in the sequel “Stitch! The Movie” and in the “Lilo & Stitch” TV series, which ran from 2003-06.

She then transitioned to her biggest TV role yet. In HBO’s “Big Love” -- which chronicled the trials and tribulations of Mormon polygamists -- she starred as Rhonda Volmer, a cunning 14-year-old bride in waiting, in 32 episodes between 2006 and 2011.

Daveigh Elizabeth Schwallier was born July 24, 1990, in Las Vegas. Her father was a cook and helped to build motor homes. Her mother, Cathy Annette (Chase) Schwallier, went to nursing school but did not work a regular job.

The family moved to Albany, Oregon, where Chase would grow up, a few weeks after her birth. Chase was homeschooled, and at age 6, she won the Little Miss Oregon beauty pageant.

She starred in a Campbell’s Soup commercial soon after, and then landed the voice-over role in “Lilo & Stitch.” She would go on to star as Samantha Darko, the younger sister of Jake Gyllenhaal’s Donnie, in “Donnie Darko” (2001) and in a little-noted sequel, “S. Darko” (2009). She also voiced Chihiro Ogino in the English-language release of Hayao Miyazaki’s 2001 animated classic, “Spirited Away.”

After 2016, she largely stopped acting, and troubles with the law soon followed. In 2017, she was charged with riding in a stolen BMW, according to TMZ; in 2018, she was charged with possession of a controlled substance, according to The New York Post.

Schwallier, 61, said in an interview on Wednesday that Chase had struggled with drugs since the age of 13. He said that he hadn’t spoken with her since she was 19 and that she had a terrible falling-out with her mother around the same time. Her parents divorced 32 years ago.

Schwallier had been in touch with Chase’s boyfriend, Roy Hernandez, and arrived at Los Angeles General Medical Center, where she was being treated, just before she died.

“Him and her were destitute,” he said, describing the couple’s living conditions.

In one of at least three GoFundMe pages set up to support Chase in recent days, Hernandez described her worsening condition: “The doctors say she may not survive, and when she leaves the hospital, we have nowhere to go. My hope is to raise enough money to find a place where we can be together and make her comfortable during her last days.”

At the premiere of “Lilo & Stitch” in 2002, The Honolulu Star-Bulletin asked an 11-year-old Chase if she thought she could handle all the publicity that was sure to come her way after the movie’s release.

“Well, it is just my voice,” she demurred. “But some people who worked for Disney have recognized me already. I don’t think people will really know who I am. I guess I’ll have to deal with it!”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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