Daveigh Chase, the actress whose portrayal of the crawling ghost Samara Morgan in the 2002 horror film “The Ring” earned her an MTV Movie Award for Best Villain, died June 17 in a Los Angeles hospital. She was 35.
Her longtime manager John Ryan Jr. told BBC News that Chase died from sepsis following a bout with meningitis. He said Chase had been admitted to the hospital for malnourishment before her death.
Born in Los Angeles, Chase began acting at age 4 doing voiceover work and theater in Las Vegas, according to Ryan. She landed her first television role at 7 with a small part on the sitcom “Sabrina the Teenage Witch.”
Her film breakthrough came in 2001 when she played Samantha Darko in “Donnie Darko,” a part she reprised in the 2009 sequel “S Darko.”
The following year she played Samara Morgan in “The Ring,” the American remake of the Japanese horror film “Ringu.” The character — a long-haired girl who crawls out of a television set and kills viewers seven days after they watch a cursed videotape — became an enduring horror icon.
Chase told the Los Angeles Times in 2002 that she enjoyed playing the evil 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. “I just kind of took my own voice and put this freaky twist on it.”
That same year she voiced the Elvis-adoring Hawaiian girl Lilo in Disney’s animated feature “Lilo & Stitch.” The performance won her an Annie Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement for Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production; she continued to voice the character in later spin-offs.
Chase also appeared in 32 episodes of the HBO drama “Big Love,” playing the child bride Rhonda Volmer. Her credits included single-episode roles on “Charmed,” “ER,” and “Touched by an Angel.”
Ryan said Chase retired from full-time acting in 2015. She later faced legal troubles, according to the Hollywood Reporter, including charges of drug possession and joyriding in a stolen car.
“She was the greatest,” Ryan said. “She loved cats. She worked with cat rescues with us. She was very to herself.” He noted that Chase would retreat to her home in Las Vegas for years at a time and turned down major studio films to work on independent projects.
“She was not very Hollywood,” he said. “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.”
Chase kept homes in Nevada and downtown Los Angeles. Ryan said she had been his friend and client for 15 years.