'Lilo & Stitch' actress dies aged 35
The actress, also known for roles in 'The Ring' and 'Donnie Darko' passed away after a brief health struggle.
Actress Daveigh Chase, who was the titular voice of Lilo in the Disney animated feature film 'Lilo & Stitch', died Tuesday in Los Angeles, according to TMZ.
Her father, John David Schwallier, told the New York Times that Chase (35) died in a hospital from complications of bacterial meningitis and a blood infection.
Schwallier told the Times his estranged daughter began struggling with drugs at age 13, and had been homeless and living in Los Angeles, near the hospital where she died.
TMZ spoke to her boyfriend, Roy Hernandez, who claimed Chase had been admitted to the hospital earlier in the month due to malnutrition.
This was then confirmed by BBC News through her agent and close friend of 15 years, John Ryan Jr.
She was the greatest. She loved cats. She worked with cat rescues with us. She was very to herself. She was not very Hollywood. She'd rather eat at Bob's Big Boy and go home with the cats. She loved acting but wasn't into the fame scene.
Hernandez had created a fundraising website to help cover her health care costs, where he also shared more about some of her hardships.
"After a difficult childhood and a painful falling out with her family, Daveigh was bullied and struggled to find safety and happiness in downtown LA," Hernandez wrote on the page. "Together, we found moments of happiness and hope."
Chase was 11 when 'Lilo & Stitch' became a box office hit, and stayed on as the character's voice for television and video game projects.
She was also cast as the English voice of Chihiro, the lead heroine in Studio Ghibli's 'Spirited Away', which won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature.
Her career as a child actor included live-action work.
She went from appearing in a Campbell's Soup commercial to playing a kid sister to Jake Gyllenhaal in his title role as 'Donnie Darko'.
In the iconic 2002 horror 'The Ring', Chase played the villain, Samara Morgan.
She was the one crawling out of televisions, with her long black hair obscuring her face, to terrify viewers.
The performance earned her the 'Best Villain' MTV Movie Award in 2003.
In 2006, she starred as a recurring character in the HBO series 'Big Love'.
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