Daveigh Chase, the former child actor who became a household name as the voice of Lilo in Disney’s Lilo & Stitch and as the terrifying Samara Morgan in The Ring, has died at age 35. News of her passing broke on June 17, 2026, sending shockwaves through fans who grew up watching her films, and immediately triggered a wave of searches asking how she died, what her cause of death was, and what had happened to her in the years since she stepped away from Hollywood.
This article brings together everything currently known about Daveigh Chase’s death, her cause of death, her career highlights, and the personal struggles that shaped her final years — answering the most common questions fans are asking right now.
Who Was Daveigh Chase?
Daveigh Elizabeth Chase was born on July 24, 1990, in Las Vegas, Nevada, and was raised in Albany, Oregon. She began acting at just seven years old, starting out in television commercials before quickly landing roles that would define her childhood and, eventually, an entire generation’s pop-culture memory. By the time she was a teenager, Chase had already built a resume most adult actors would envy, moving fluidly between heartwarming family entertainment and bone-chilling horror.
What made Chase unusual among child stars was the sheer range of her work. In the same year, she gave voice to one of Disney’s most beloved heroines and portrayed one of horror cinema’s most disturbing villains — a duality that became central to her identity as an actress and to how the public remembers her today.
Why Is Daveigh Chase Famous? Her Breakout Roles
Voicing Lilo in Disney’s Lilo & Stitch
Chase is best known to many fans as the voice of Lilo Pelekai, the spirited young Hawaiian girl at the center of Disney’s 2002 animated film Lilo & Stitch. The film became an instant classic, beloved for its themes of family, loneliness, and acceptance, and Lilo’s voice — full of mischief, vulnerability, and heart — was entirely Chase’s creation. She reprised the role across the franchise’s television spin-offs and follow-up projects, cementing Lilo as one of the most enduring characters in the Disney canon.
Her performance earned her an Annie Award for outstanding voice acting in an animated feature, and the role remains, for many, the definitive answer to “who is the voice of Lilo.”
Samara Morgan in The Ring
In a dramatic tonal shift the very same year, Chase took on the role of Samara Morgan, the vengeful, supernatural antagonist of Gore Verbinski’s horror hit The Ring (2002). Her portrayal — a pale, dark-haired girl whose video tape brought death to anyone who watched it — became iconic almost overnight. Chase’s performance was so effective that footage of her was reused in later sequels, including The Ring Two (2005) and Rings (2017), extending her presence in the franchise long after her initial appearance.
The role earned Chase an MTV Movie Award for Best Villain in 2003, where she beat out a remarkably stacked field that included Willem Dafoe for Spider-Man, Daniel Day-Lewis for Gangs of New York, and Mike Myers’ double turn in Austin Powers in Goldmember.
Spirited Away, Donnie Darko, and Other Roles
Chase’s voice work extended beyond Disney. She voiced Chihiro Ogino in the English-language dub of Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away, widely regarded as one of the finest animated films ever made. On the live-action side, she played Samantha Darko, the younger sister of Jake Gyllenhaal’s character, in Donnie Darko (2001), and later reprised the role in the 2009 direct-to-video sequel S. Darko.
Television audiences also knew her from a recurring role on HBO’s acclaimed drama Big Love, where she played the troubled Rhonda Volmer from 2006 to 2011, as well as appearances on Sabrina the Teenage Witch, ER, and Beethoven’s 5th. She also voiced the lead character in the PBS Kids series Betsy’s Kindergarten Adventures.
Why Did Daveigh Chase Stop Acting?
Chase’s last credited acting role came in 2016, in the horror film Jack Goes Home. After that, she largely withdrew from public life and the entertainment industry. While she never gave a single definitive public explanation for stepping away, reporting around her death indicates that personal hardship played a significant role.
According to her father, who spoke to the New York Times following her death, Chase had struggled with substance use issues since she was 13 years old. He also said she had experienced periods of homelessness in Los Angeles in her final years, living with her boyfriend, Roy Hernandez. A GoFundMe campaign launched by Hernandez shortly before her death described a “difficult childhood and a painful falling out with her family,” and noted that she had faced bullying and struggled to find safety and stability in downtown Los Angeles.
These details paint a picture of a former child star whose adult life was marked by significant struggle, far removed from the spotlight that had defined her early career.
What Happened to Daveigh Chase? The Timeline Leading to Her Death
In the weeks before her death, Chase’s health had been deteriorating. She was admitted to a hospital in Los Angeles earlier in June 2026 due to malnutrition. Her condition worsened from there: she was subsequently diagnosed with meningitis along with several serious blood infections.
Her boyfriend, Roy Hernandez, set up a fundraiser to help with her medical care just days before she died, writing that her condition had become critical and that doctors had warned him she might not have much time left. That warning proved accurate. Daveigh Chase died on Tuesday, June 16, 2026, in Los Angeles.
Daveigh Chase Cause of Death: What We Know
The cause of death, as relayed by Hernandez to TMZ — which first broke the story — was meningitis combined with a bloodstream infection. According to his account, the infection caused septic complications that ultimately led her body to shut down. This sequence is consistent with severe, untreated or late-treated bacterial meningitis, which can progress to sepsis (a life-threatening, body-wide inflammatory response to infection) and multi-organ failure if not addressed quickly.
It’s worth noting that, as of this writing, the Los Angeles County coroner’s office has not released an official, independently confirmed cause of death. The information currently circulating comes from family and her boyfriend’s statements to media outlets, not from a medical examiner’s report. Outlets including Deadline have reached out to representatives for Chase for further comment, and updates may follow as more official information becomes available.
How Did Daveigh Chase Die? Understanding Meningitis and Sepsis
For readers unfamiliar with the medical terms involved, meningitis is an inflammation of the membranes (meninges) surrounding the brain and spinal cord, most often caused by bacterial or viral infection. Bacterial meningitis, in particular, can escalate rapidly and become life-threatening within hours to days if untreated.
When an infection like this spreads into the bloodstream, it can trigger sepsis — the body’s extreme, dysregulated response to infection — which can cause blood pressure to drop dangerously low and vital organs to fail in succession. This combination of meningitis and septic complications is what Chase’s loved ones have described as the cause of her death, consistent with reports that she had previously been hospitalized for malnutrition, a condition that can weaken the immune system and make the body more vulnerable to severe infection.
Tributes Pour In for the Late Star
Following confirmation of her death, fans and former collaborators took to social media to remember Chase. Outlets like Letterboxd shared simple tributes marking her years (1990–2026), while entertainment publications including Variety, Deadline, and TMZ ran retrospectives highlighting her decades-spanning body of work. Many fans specifically reflected on the duality of her career — being simultaneously responsible for one of Disney’s most comforting heroines and one of horror’s most unforgettable villains.
As of publication, no official statement had been issued by Disney, DreamWorks, or HBO regarding her passing.
FAQ
Q1.Did Daveigh Chase voice Lilo?
Yes. Daveigh Chase voiced Lilo Pelekai in Disney’s 2002 animated film Lilo & Stitch and its television follow-ups, a role widely considered the signature performance of her career.
Q2.Why is Daveigh Chase famous? She’s primarily known for two contrasting roles released the same year: voicing the title heroine in Lilo & Stitch and portraying the villainous Samara Morgan in the horror film The Ring. She also voiced Chihiro in the English dub of Spirited Away and appeared in Donnie Darko and HBO’s Big Love.
Q3.What happened to Daveigh Chase?
After her last acting credit in 2016, Chase largely withdrew from the public eye. Reports following her death indicate she faced substance use struggles dating back to her teenage years, periods of homelessness, and a difficult relationship with her family, before being hospitalized for malnutrition shortly before her death.
Q4.What was Daveigh Chase’s cause of death?
According to her boyfriend’s statements to TMZ, Chase died from meningitis and a bloodstream infection that led to sepsis and multi-organ failure. An official cause of death from the coroner’s office has not yet been released.
Q5.How did Daveigh Chase die?
She died on June 16, 2026, in Los Angeles, after being hospitalized earlier in the month for malnutrition and subsequently diagnosed with meningitis and serious blood infections that caused her condition to rapidly decline.
Q6.Did Daveigh Chase play Samara in The Ring?
Yes. She played Samara Morgan in the 2002 film The Ring, a role that earned her the MTV Movie Award for Best Villain in 2003.
Final Thoughts
Daveigh Chase’s death at 35 closes the chapter on a career that began in childhood and left a permanent mark on two very different corners of pop culture: family animation and horror cinema. For an entire generation, she will be remembered both as the voice that gave Lilo her warmth and humor, and as the eerie presence behind Samara Morgan’s haunting stare. As more details emerge about her final weeks and an official cause of death is confirmed, her legacy as one of th
