Daveigh Chase, voice of Lilo in Disney’s ‘Lilo & Stitch’, dies at 35

LOS ANGELES, June 18 — Actress Daveigh Chase, who was the titular voice of Lilo in the Disney animated feature film “Lilo & Stitch,” died Today in Los Angeles, according to US media. She was 35.

Her father John David Schwallier told the New York Times that Chase 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.

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 language 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, and she appeared in a Campbell’s Soup commercial and played a kid sister to Jake Gyllenhaal in his title turn as “Donnie Darko”.

In 2002’s “The Ring,” Chase played the part of villain Samara Morgan who crawled 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.

TMZ identified her boyfriend as Roy Hernandez and cited a fundraising web page he created to fund her health care wherein he detailed 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’s representation did not immediately respond to a query from AFP. — AFP