Heather O’Rourke starred as Carol Ann Freeling in the first three Poltergeist movies, but she sadly never saw how the third one was received as she died aged 12 before its release
Horror classic Poltergeist became known as one of Hollywood’s most cursed film franchises after the cast suffered a number of tragedies once filming wrapped.
Dominique Dunne, who played Dana Freeling in 1982’s Poltergeist, became the victim of a grisly murder the year the film was released, while Lou Perryman, who played Pugsley in the original movie, was hacked to death with an axe at the age of 67 in 1992. And they weren’t the only cast members to meet a tragic end.
Child actor Heather O’Rourke played Carol Anne Freeling in Steven Spielberg’s 1982 movie Poltergeist, before going on to star in two sequels. Carol became an iconic horror film character, widely recognized for her long platinum blonde hair and for calling out to her mom from the beyond. For the latest TV and showbiz gossip sign up to our newsletter.
While Carol was eventually given a happy ending as she reunited with her family, the real life Heather didn’t have quite a fairy-tale ending. She sadly died at the age of 12 in 1988, before the final Poltergeist film she had starred in was released. The child star died on an operating table in The Children’s Hospital of San Diego.
Her death was sudden, with Heather’s parents having believed she was a fit and healthy young girl. However, she developed flu-like symptoms while filming the third Poltergeist movie, reports the Mirror US.
A similar thing had happened the previous year, with doctors telling Heather’s mom and dad that she likely had Crohn’s disease, which causes inflammation in the bowel. Crohn’s disease can cause pain, digestive issues, weight loss and fatigue.
When she showed the symptoms the second time though, Heather’s health was much worse and she collapsed before being rushed to hospital. Doctors told her parents she had suffered cardiac arrest.
Doctors managed to resuscitate Heather and surgeons performed an operation on her bowel to fix what they believed to be an obstruction. Sadly, she was pronounced dead that afternoon.
Her manager told Associated Press at the time, “It’s weird. She was completely healthy Saturday, they thought she had the flu on Sunday, and she was dead on Monday.” Her death certificate later revealed the cause of her passing to be a combination of intestinal stenosis, a severe bowel obstruction that Heather potentially had since birth, suspected septic shock and cardio-respiratory arrest.
A hospital spokeswoman told the Los Angeles Times after Heather died that her passing was “distinctly unusual.” She explained how the bowel obstruction had “caused an infection that, in turn, brought on septic shock. The shock prompted full cardiac and pulmonary arrest.”
The spokesperson suggested that what caused the bowel obstruction was believed to have been a birth defect which would have caused “a lot of (digestive) difficulties throughout her life,” but Heather didn’t regularly experience any symptoms.
After reading the autopsy report, Heather’s parents filed a wrongful death lawsuit. Her mother, Kathleen O’Rourke Peele said in a statement, “The X rays taken, if properly read, would have disclosed that this was the kind of condition that should have been treated surgically.” The lawsuit was later settled out of court.
