Lilo & Stitch voice actor Chase dies from sepsis at 29

Daveigh Chase, who gave voice to Lilo Pelekai in Disney’s Lilo & Stitch and turned Samara Morgan into one of horror’s most enduring figures in The Ring, died in a Los Angeles hospital after sepsis followed a bout with meningitis. She was 35. Her longtime manager, John Ryan Jr., said Chase had also been admitted for malnourishment before her death on Tuesday, June 16, 2026.

Chase’s work reached audiences across genres, from family animation to psychological horror. In 2002, she voiced the title character in Lilo & Stitch, helping anchor a film that became a lasting part of Disney’s animated canon. That same year, she played Samara Morgan in The Ring, a performance that left a deep imprint on modern horror and earned her the MTV Movie Awards’ Best Villain honor.

Her screen career started early. Ryan said Chase began acting at age 4 and landed her first Hollywood job at 7. She later moved through television and film projects that included the HBO drama Big Love, and reports also placed her in Donnie Darko and the English-language version of Spirited Away. By 2015, she had retired from acting full time.

The circumstances of her death point to a severe medical cascade. Ryan said Chase was hospitalized with malnourishment before the infection progressed. Her boyfriend, Roy Hernandez, separately said she had been battling meningitis and a serious blood infection before septic issues developed. The combination underscores how quickly infection can become life-threatening when the body is already under strain.

For many viewers, Chase will remain tied to two very different but equally durable cultural touchstones: the child voice that made Lilo feel immediate and human, and the haunting image of Samara that defined a generation of moviegoers’ fears. Her career was brief compared with those legacies, but its reach was lasting, woven into both a beloved family franchise and one of the most recognizable horror films of the 2000s.