Melissa Gilbert, who knows more than a bit about child stardom, sees something especially tragic and possibly preventable in the death of Daveigh Chase, the former Lilo & Stitch voice actor who died of AIDS earlier this month after a long battle with drugs, homelessness and multiple health failures.
Gilbert 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.
In 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.
“I only worked with Daveigh a couple of days,” Gilbert writes, “but 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 …for 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’ve also been around a lot of stage parents. Many child actors grow up just fine, whether they stay in ‘the business’ or not. That is 100% due to really solid, wise parenting.
“Child stardom, in itself, is not a guarantee of dysfunction,” she continues. “However, 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’s where the trouble begins.”
While Gilbert doesn’t call out Chase’s parents by name, the post’s intent is clear. She continues, “It 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’s death, I’m truly heartbroken. I certainly understand substance addiction disorder but this sweet girl’s 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’s 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 ‘normal’ things.”
Gilbert ends her post by encouraging parents of would-be child actors to “memorize” the story and the accompanying photo of young Chase “so that it never happens again.”
Yesterday, the Los Angeles County medical examiner revealed that the official cause of Chase’s death 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 “septic issues” that led to her body shutting down. Chase’s father John David Schwallier gave The New York Times a similar account.
Chase 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’s cult film Donnie Darko starring Jake Gyllenhaal in the title role.
Her breakthrough and early signature role came in 2002 when she voiced Lilo in Lilo & Stitch, and in 2002 she appeared in Gore Verbinski’s horror hit The Ring as the evil Samara Morgan.