Melissa Gilbert’s – Days after Daveigh Chase’s death at 35 was reported, Melissa Gilbert used an emotional Instagram tribute to reflect on the pressures she saw around child stardom—citing what she learned from filming a pilot with Chase years earlier as well as widely reported c
When Melissa Gilbert looked back at a throwback photo of Daveigh Chase, she didn’t frame it as a celebrity farewell. She framed it as something she now wishes she could have changed.
Gilbert—an Emmy-nominated actress who starred on “Little House on the Prairie”—posted her tribute on Monday, June 29, writing that she had only worked with the young actress “a couple of days” while making a TV pilot for a series roughly 20+ years ago.
“This is [Daveigh Chase] I knew. I shot a pilot for a series with her 20+ years ago,” Gilbert wrote on Instagram alongside the photo. “I only worked with Daveigh a couple of days. 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.”.
The timing of Gilbert’s post arrives amid a wave of public accounts about what preceded Chase’s death. Chase. best known for “The Ring” and “Lilo & Stitch. ” reportedly died on June 16 at age 35 after being hospitalized in Los Angeles for malnutrition. Her cause of death was later revealed to be AIDS.
Gilbert’s remembrance landed as new details about Chase’s struggles with addiction came into view. Two weeks before the tribute. reports described Chase’s hospitalization in Los Angeles for malnutrition and later tied the cause of death to AIDS. Her father, John Schwallier, told The New York Times that she struggled with drug addiction since she was 13. He also said she had been homeless and “destitute” near the LA hospital where she died.
Chase’s mother also spoke publicly, telling the Daily Mail that Chase had been prescribed oxycodone and other painkillers after a motorcycle accident in 2016—an account that linked the start of substance abuse issues to her medical treatment.
Gilbert used her post not only to mourn, but to warn. She said she has been “around a lot of child actors. ” including herself. and described it as belonging to a “big multigenerational tribe.” She then pointed to the role she believes parents can play when a child’s public life starts to eclipse the adult life around them.
“I have been around a lot of stage parents,” Gilbert wrote. “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. 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.”.
The actress continued with a sharper critique of what she sees as a common outcome. She wrote that “the terrible part is that so few child actors continue on to have careers as actors,” saying that for many, it “goes away,” which she said devastates not only the child, but also “the whole family.”
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.
Chase’s career unfolded early and across multiple genres. She had her big-screen breakthrough at age 10. co-starring as Jake Gyllenhaal’s younger sister. Samantha. in the 2001 psychological thriller “Donnie Darko.” She later found success as a voice actress. playing the young heroine Chihiro in the English-language dub of Hayao Miyazaki’s “Spirited Away. ” and voicing misfit Lilo in Disney’s 2002 animated hit “Lilo & Stitch.”.
That same year. she became a horror icon as Samara—the long-haired. rubber-jointed child in “The Ring”—who famously crawls out of a television set to claim victims. Her performance earned her the MTV Movie Award for best villain. beating competitors including Daniel Day-Lewis. Mike Myers. Willem Dafoe and Colin Farrell in her category.
In the years that followed, Chase mostly stayed out of the spotlight. Her last film appearance came in the 2016 thriller “American Romance,” starring John Savage. Over nearly two decades, she amassed roughly 50 credits across movies and TV.
Gilbert’s final message pressed the same theme: the stakes are not only professional, but personal. She wrote. “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.”.
“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,” she continued.
She also urged parents to remember Chase as a cautionary story. “I would also ask that these parents memorize this sweet girl’s face and her story so that it never happens again.”
For readers who may be dealing with similar struggles, Gilbert’s post included a resource: the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
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