Heather O'Rourke
Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park
Heather O'Rourke is
best known for her performances as the terrified young girl who is sucked
into a spectral dimension by evil spirits in "Poltergeist" (1982) and two sequels.
O'Rourke began her acting career at the age of 5, appearing
in episodes of "Fantasy Island," "Webster" and "CHiPs" in the early 1980s.
In 1982, she had a semi-regular role on the popular television sitcom,
"Happy Days."
O'Rourke was eating lunch in the commissary at MGM studios
with her mother and sister when writer and director Steven Spielberg, who
was looking a child to star in "Poltergeist," saw her and asked if she would
do a screen test for the film. O'Rourke, as Carol Anne Freeling, the youngest
daughter in a family that finds their home haunted by unfriendly spirits,
had the most memorable line in the first "Poltergeist" film - "They're heeeeere!"
-- and in the second, "Poltergeist II" (1986) -- "They're baaaaack!" O'Rourke
was the only actor from the first two films to appear in the next sequel,
"Poltergeist III" (1988), in which the evil spirits follow her when she visits
her aunt and uncle.
A few months after she finished work on "Poltergeist III,"
O'Rourke complained of abdominal pains, and was taken to a hospital in San
Diego, CA, where she died on the operating table. O'Rourke had been suffering
from intestinal stenosis, a congenital obstruction of the digestive tract.
The blockage, which had been previously undetected, caused an infection
which resulted in her death, just a few weeks after her 12th birthday.
"Poltergeist III" was released after O'Rourke's death, and was dedicated
to her memory. A few months after O'Rourke's death, her mother filed
a wrongful-death lawsuit against the hospital where O'Rourke had been treated,
charging that the girl's condition had been improperly diagnosed, and the
intestinal obstruction could have been eliminated with a simple surgical procedure.
The marker on O'Rourke's crypt identifies her as
"Carol Anne - Poltergeist I, II, III." Despite her film roles, O'Rourke said
her proudest accomplishment was being elected president of her fifth-grade class.
O'Rourke was born Dec. 27, 1975, in San Diego, CA. She
died Feb. 1, 1988, in San Diego, CA.
1975 - 1988
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