Hollywood has lost one of the most recognisable young voices of the early 2000s. Daveigh Chase, the actor who gave Disney's Lilo & Stitch its spirited heroine and later sent a generation of moviegoers running with her portrayal of Samara in The Ring, has died at the age of 35. According to TrendKia, the former child performer passed away on 16 June after fighting both meningitis and a blood infection. She had been acting since the age of eight and built a body of work spanning 50 projects.
A Childhood Detour That Opened The Door
Daveigh Elizabeth Chase was born on 24 July, 1990 in Las Vegas, Nevada, and her route into acting began with an unexpected accident rather than a casting call. When she was eight, a car crash brought a family road trip to a sudden halt and left her temporarily stranded in Los Angeles. Her mother was unable to drive for six months, and during that stretch the young Daveigh was pushed to feed her growing interest in the arts. She later said her early love of performing had been sparked by the nineties children's television favourite Barney. Small roles soon followed on shows such as Sabrina The Teenage Witch, Charmed and ER, and before she had even reached her teenage years she had already landed the parts that would secure her place in film history.
Four Very Different Films In One Astonishing Stretch
Between October 2001 and October 2002, Chase turned up in four wildly different yet equally memorable movies. She first appeared alongside Jake Gyllenhaal in Richard Kelly's cult favourite Donnie Darko, playing Donnie's younger sister Samantha, a role she returned to in the 2009 direct-to-video sequel S. Darko. Over the summer and early autumn of 2002 she then voiced the young leads of what were, at the time, the biggest animated releases coming out of both the West and the East.
In Lilo & Stitch she became Lilo Pelekai, a Disney lead unlike any audiences had met before, full of attitude and genuine emotion. The performance earned her an Annie Award, and she would return to the character across Stitch! The Movie, Leroy & Stitch and Lilo & Stitch: The Series. Around the same time she voiced ten-year-old Chihiro in the English-language dub of Hayao Miyazaki's coming-of-age fantasy Spirited Away, carrying the character's journey from a timid child to a brave young girl through the film's spirit-filled bathhouse. Before the year was out, she delivered one of cinema's definitive "creepy kid" performances as Samara in Gore Verbinski's remake of the cursed-videotape horror The Ring, an image that haunted millions.
A Career That Kept Growing
Chase remained a familiar presence on screen as she moved through her teens and into adulthood. In film she took on independent projects, including Nick Cassettes' 2012 TIFF selection Yellow, and she starred opposite Rory Culkin, Natasha Lyonne and a young Britt Robertson in Thomas Dekker's low-budget horror Jack Goes Home, which premiered at SXSW. On television she gave a memorable turn as the Mormon wife Rhonda Volmer opposite Harry Dean Stanton's Roman Grant in the HBO drama Big Love, before returning to voice work to lead the PBS Kids series Betsy's Kindergarten Adventures.
Remembering A Singular Talent
Daveigh Elizabeth Chase leaves behind a varied legacy, and the voice she lent to so many beloved characters is likely to endure for years. Our thoughts are with her friends, family and loved ones during this profoundly difficult time.
