NEW YORK — Former child star Daveigh Chase, who voiced Lilo in Disney’s beloved “Lilo & Stitch” and starred in “The Ring,” has died. She was 35.
Chase died Tuesday following a battle with meningitis and a blood infection, after having been hospitalized earlier this month for malnutrition, her boyfriend, Roy Hernandez, told TMZ.
It’s unclear whether Chase ever ended up leaving the hospital or how she contracted meningitis, an infection that causes inflammation of the fluid and membranes around the brain and spinal cord.
Chase made her television debut in a 1998 episode of “Sabrina the Teenage Witch,” and first appeared on the big screen in “Her Married Lover” the following year.
In 2000, Chase appeared in episodes of multiple hits like “Charmed,” “The Practice,” and “ER.”
The early aughts were key for Chase’s career. In 2001, she played Samantha in “Donnie Darko” — a role she reprised in 2009’s “S. Darko” — and voiced Chihiro and Sen for the English dubbing of “Spirited Away.”
Chase broke out in 2002 when she voiced Lilo in “Lilo & Stitch,” and played the villain, Samara, in “The Ring.”
Chase reprised the role of Lilo across video games as well as spinoffs of the animated hit, including “Lilo & Stitch: The Series” — which aired from 2003 to 2006 — as well as “Stitch! The Movie,” “Lilo & Stitch’s Island of Adventures” and “Leroy & Stitch.”
Chase played Rhonda Volmer across 32 episodes of HBO’s “Big Love,” from 2006 to 2011, and voiced Betsy in nearly two dozen episodes of “Betsy’s Kindergarten Adventures.”
She died a decade after her last screen credits in 2016, when she played Shanda in “Jack Goes Home” and and Krissy in “American Romance.” Also in 2016, Chase lent her voice to Kiwako Seto in the “Let It Die” video game.
It’s unknown whether Chase suffered from viral meningitis — the most common type in the U.S. — or bacterial, though prompt treatment is usually necessary for either form of the disease. The latter type can be fatal or cause long-term brain damage if not treated with antibiotics within days of onset, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Vaccines exist for meningitis, which the World Health Organization says can also be caused by fungi and parasites.
