Daveigh Elizabeth Chase, the former child star best known for voicing Lilo in Disney’s Lilo & Stitch and her haunting portrayal of the ghost Samara Morgan in The Ring, died June 17, 2026, at age 35 from complications of meningitis at a Los Angeles hospital.
Her boyfriend, Roy Hernandez, confirmed Chase’s death to multiple outlets, explaining that an infection in her blood caused septic issues that led to her body shutting down. The actress had been admitted to the hospital in early June after suffering from severe malnutrition.
In the days before her death, Hernandez had set up a GoFundMe campaign to help fund Chase’s medical care, with a target of $5,500. The page had raised $1,300 as of Wednesday evening. In the fundraising appeal, Hernandez described Chase as having “always been a light in my life,” but noted that “behind the scenes, she’s faced more than her share of hardship.”
He wrote that following a troubled upbringing and estrangement from her relatives, Chase was bullied and struggled to find safety and happiness in downtown Los Angeles. “When we met, I promised to protect her and give her the love and comfort she deserved,” Hernandez said. “Together, we found moments of happiness and hope.”
Born Daveigh Elizabeth Chase on July 24, 1990, in Las Vegas, Nevada, and raised in Albany, Oregon, Chase began her entertainment career at age four doing voiceover work and theater. She landed her first Hollywood television role at age seven with a small part in the sitcom Sabrina the Teenage Witch.
Chase’s breakthrough came in 2001 when she appeared as Samantha Darko in Richard Kelly’s cult film Donnie Darko, which featured Jake Gyllenhaal in the lead role. She would later reprise the role in the 2009 sequel S. Darko.
The year 2002 proved to be a career-defining moment for the young actress. She voiced the title character of Lilo Pelekai, a young Hawaiian girl without parents who adopts what she thinks is a dog but is actually an alien, in Disney’s animated hit Lilo & Stitch. The performance won her an Annie Award for Best Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production, and she went on to perform the role in multiple sequels and the 2003-2006 television series.
That same year, at just 12 years old, Chase became the ghostly face of Gore Verbinski’s horror hit The Ring as Samara Morgan, the pale child with long dark hair and a white dress who crawls out of a television screen with deadly supernatural powers. The role earned her the 2003 MTV Movie Award for Best Villain, beating out Willem Dafoe for Spider-Man, Daniel Day-Lewis for Gangs of New York, Colin Farrell for Daredevil, and Mike Myers for Austin Powers in Goldmember.
In a 2002 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Chase said she enjoyed playing such an unusual character. “It is not your typical character. Usually they are looking for a happy-go-lucky kid, but Samara was a pretty interesting character to play,” she said.
Chase also voiced Chihiro Ogino in the 2001 English dub of Studio Ghibli’s acclaimed film Spirited Away. Her television credits included single-episode appearances in Charmed, ER, The Practice, and Touched by an Angel. From 2006 to 2011, she had a 32-episode recurring role on HBO’s polygamy drama Big Love as young sociopath Rhonda Volmer, a child bride.
After appearing in Thomas Dekker’s 2016 horror film Jack Goes Home, Chase stepped away from acting. She slipped out of the spotlight in 2013 and retreated from public view entirely in 2017, when she posted on social media for the last time. She officially retired from full-time acting in 2015.
Chase’s manager of 15 years, John Ryan Jr., remembered her on Wednesday as someone who eschewed the Hollywood lifestyle. Ryan said Chase was devoted to feline rescue work and preferred a quiet life with her cats to the celebrity scene, often choosing to dine at Bob’s Big Boy rather than trendy restaurants.
Ryan noted that Chase kept homes in Nevada and downtown Los Angeles and would often retreat to Las Vegas for years at a time, turning down big studio films to work on independent projects instead.
Following her retirement from acting, Chase experienced several personal and legal difficulties. In 2017, she was arrested in Los Angeles on a felony charge after being found riding as a passenger in a vehicle that had been reported stolen. The following year, she was arrested on a misdemeanor drug possession charge and spent a short time in a Hollywood jail. By November 2018, Chase faced two misdemeanor counts: possession of a controlled substance without a valid prescription and possession of drug paraphernalia.
In 2025 and early 2026, friends had searched for Chase on Los Angeles’s Skid Row in the months before her death, according to reports. In his GoFundMe appeal, Hernandez described how Chase had struggled to find safety in downtown Los Angeles before they met.