{"id":735230,"date":"2026-06-30T17:30:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T17:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/735230\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T17:30:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T17:30:14","slug":"melissa-gilbert-calls-daveigh-chase-death-heartbreaking-slams-stage-parenting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/735230\/","title":{"rendered":"Melissa Gilbert Calls Daveigh Chase Death Heartbreaking, Slams Stage Parenting"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tMelissa Gilbert<\/a>, who knows more than a bit about child stardom, sees something especially tragic and possibly preventable in the death of Daveigh Chase<\/a>, the former Lilo & Stitch voice actor who died of AIDS earlier this month after a long battle with drugs, homelessness and multiple health failures.<\/p>\n

\n\tGilbert and Chase worked together on a series pilot more than 20 years ago, and in a new Instagram post Gilbert says she saw some signs of early trouble: stage parents.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the post accompanied by a youthful and seemingly happy Chase, Gilbert explains that she shot a series pilot more than 20 years ago with actors Jack Coleman, Kevin Zegers and Chase.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI only worked with Daveigh a couple of days,\u201d Gilbert writes, \u201cbut I could see she was bright both in countenance and in mind. She was bubbly, sweet and professional. But there was something else there, a push or need to perform \u2026for her parents. I have been around a lot of child actors, myself included, which makes us all a part of a big multigenerational tribe. As a consequence, I\u2019ve also been around a lot of stage parents. Many child actors grow up just fine, whether they stay in \u2018the business\u2019 or not. That is 100% due to really solid, wise parenting. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cChild stardom, in itself, is not a guarantee of dysfunction,\u201d she continues. \u201cHowever, when a parent or parents lose sight of who THEY are, of what their true responsibility is, and their lives revolve solely around their little star child, well, that\u2019s where the trouble begins.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile Gilbert doesn\u2019t call out Chase\u2019s parents by name, the post\u2019s intent is clear. She continues, \u201cIt takes strong parenting to handle all that comes with it. The terrible part is, that so few child actors continue on to have careers as actors . For most, it goes away, and when that happens it not only devastates the child but it turns the whole family upside down. Today, reading the circumstances of Daveigh\u2019s death, I\u2019m truly heartbroken. I certainly understand substance addiction disorder but this sweet girl\u2019s death is so much more. If I had the chance to speak to any parents who were thinking about getting their children in the industry I would tell them to please, please make sure that they are doing it for the right reasons. That they will take the child to an accountant regularly so that he or she knows exactly what he or she is making, and where it is going. To be sure it\u2019s something the child really wants. To be sure that that child has a life outside of the industry that is thriving and full of friends and responsibilities and \u2018normal\u2019 things.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGilbert ends her post by encouraging parents of would-be child actors to \u201cmemorize\u201d the story and the accompanying photo of young Chase \u201cso that it never happens again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tYesterday, the Los Angeles County medical examiner revealed that the official cause of Chase\u2019s death<\/a> was acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) with other significant conditions, including chronic polysubstance use. Chase died June 16 at the age 35, at which time her boyfriend, Roy Hernandez, said she had died from complications of meningitis and that an infection in her blood caused \u201cseptic issues\u201d that led to her body shutting down. Chase\u2019s father John David Schwallier gave The New York Times a similar account.<\/p>\n

\n\tChase began her career at age 7, when she appeared in commercials and on stage. At 8, she began appearing on such TV series as Sabrina, The Teenage Witch, Charmed, The Practice and ER. In 2001, she was cast as Samantha Darko in Richard Kelly\u2019s cult film Donnie Darko starring Jake Gyllenhaal in the title role.<\/p>\n

\n\tHer breakthrough and early signature role came in 2002 when she voiced Lilo in Lilo & Stitch, and in 2002 she appeared in Gore Verbinski\u2019s horror hit The Ring as the evil Samara Morgan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Melissa Gilbert, who knows more than a bit about child stardom, sees something especially tragic and possibly preventable…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":735231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[306739,88,12260],"class_list":["post-735230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-daveigh-chase","tag-entertainment","tag-melissa-gilbert"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=735230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/735231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=735230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=735230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=735230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}