---
title: "Daveigh Chase, Voice of Lilo and Star of 'The Ring,' Dies at 35"
description: "Daveigh Chase, the actress who gave voice to Disney's Lilo and chilled audiences as the ghost-girl Samara in 'The Ring,' has died in Los Angeles at 35 — a startling double legacy of warmth and dread for a generation that grew up with both films."
category: "Entertainment"
category_url: https://herald.la/category/entertainment
author: "Lucía Fuentes"
published: 2026-06-29T18:48:00.000Z
updated: 2026-06-29T18:48:00.000Z
canonical: https://herald.la/article/daveigh-chase-voice-of-lilo-and-star-of-the-ring-dies-at-35
tags: ["obituary", "Daveigh Chase", "Lilo and Stitch", "The Ring", "Big Love", "Disney", "Hollywood"]
---
# Daveigh Chase, Voice of Lilo and Star of 'The Ring,' Dies at 35

Daveigh Chase, the actress who gave voice to Disney's Lilo and chilled audiences as the ghost-girl Samara in 'The Ring,' has died in Los Angeles at 35 — a startling double legacy of warmth and dread for a generation that grew up with both films.

Few performers leave behind two images as different as the ones Daveigh Chase did — a hopeful Hawaiian girl and a vengeful ghost — both indelible, both hers.

## A child performer from Las Vegas

Born Daveigh Elizabeth Chase-Schwallier on July 24, 1990, in Las Vegas, she was performing as a small child and moved with her family to Southern California, where she began acting in earnest. Guest roles on television followed, and in 2001 she appeared as Samantha Darko alongside Jake Gyllenhaal in the cult film *Donnie Darko*.

## The two roles that defined her

The year 2002 made her a household presence twice over, in opposite keys. For Disney she provided the speaking and singing voice of Lilo Pelekai in *Lilo & Stitch*, the story of a lonely Hawaiian girl and her alien companion — a performance that earned an Annie Award and that she reprised across the franchise's sequels and series. That same year she also dubbed the English-language voice of Chihiro in Hayao Miyazaki's *Spirited Away*. And almost simultaneously she appeared in Gore Verbinski's horror hit *The Ring* as Samara Morgan, the pale figure who crawls from a television screen — a turn that won her an MTV Movie Award for best villain.

## A dramatic second act

From 2006 to 2011, Chase played Rhonda Volmer, a strong-willed teenage bride, on HBO's polygamy drama *Big Love*, showing a range beyond the otherworldly children that had been her calling card. She continued in independent films into the mid-2010s before stepping away from the industry.

## A difficult final chapter

Chase's life after acting grew hard. Her father has said publicly that she experienced homelessness and struggled with addiction, and she faced legal troubles in her later years. Her partner, Roy Hernandez, said in a statement that after a painful estrangement from her family she "struggled to find safety and happiness in downtown L.A." [Variety reported](https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/daveigh-chase-cause-of-death-lilo-stitch-1236798657/) that she died of complications related to AIDS, with chronic substance use a contributing factor; the Herald could not independently confirm the medical details, and some accounts of the cause differ.

## Legacy

Her voice remains inseparable from one of Disney's most enduring characters; the 2025 live-action *Lilo & Stitch* renewed attention on the original and on the young actress who made Lilo's mix of defiance and longing feel so real. For those who grew up with both that film and *The Ring*, her name carries a peculiar double magic — tenderness and terror, often remembered in the same breath. She is survived by her father and other family members.

## Sources

- [Daveigh Chase, voice of Lilo in 'Lilo & Stitch,' dead at 35](https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/daveigh-chase-cause-of-death-lilo-stitch-1236798657/)
- [Daveigh Chase — biography](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daveigh_Chase)