Child Actress Heather O'Rourke
Poltergeist/ Carol Anne Freeling
Poltergeist II-The Other Side/ Carol Anne Freeling
Poltergeist III/ Carol Anne Freeling
Happy Days (TV)/ Heather Pfister
Heather O'Rourke was an American child actress who was born at San Diego, CA in 1975.
She is best known for her role as Carol Anne Freeling in the Poltergeist films,
Her mother worked as a seamstress and her father was a construction worker. Her parents were divorced in 1981 and her mother remarried a truck driver after which they moved to a trailer park in Anaheim. But after her acting career started the family was able to purchase a home in Big Bear Lake, CA.
Discovered by director Steven Spielberg while visiting the M G M Studios, he cast her in the part of Carol Anne in the first Poltergeist film in 1982. The director was looking for a "beatific, four year old child" and Heather O'Rourke fit the bill. She was signed the next day beating out Drew Barrymore who was being considered for the role.
After her work in the Poltergeist Miss. O'Rourke secured several television and film roles.
The film roles of Heather O'Rourke were:
Poltergeist (1982) as Carol Anne Freeling
Massarati And The Brain ( 1982-TV) as Skye Henry
Surviving (1985-TV) as Sarah Brogan
Around The Bend (1986-TV) as The Daughter
Poltergeist II - The Other Side (1986) as Carol Anne Freeling
Poltergeist III (1988) as Carol Anne Freeling.
Miss O'Rourke had a recurring role in the TV series Happy Days (1982 - 1983) as Heather Pfister.
Other television programs that she also appeared on were Matt Houston, Webster, Finder Of Lost Loves, Our House, Rocky Road and The New Leave It To Beaver.
Her delivery of the lines "They're here" and They're baa-aack" put her in the collective pop culture conscioness of the United States.
Ms. O'Rourke became ill in early 1987. She was misdiagnosed as having Crohn's disease by the doctors at Kaiser Permanente Hospital. Due to the misdiagnosis and various treatments, Heather O'Rourke died at Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego on February 1, 1988 at age 12.
Sanford M. Gage, the O'Rourke family attorney filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Kaiser Foundation Hospital for misdiagnosing her long standing small bowel obstruction with Crohn's disease. The Kaiser foundation Hospital stood their ground that the diagnosis was correct. The case became very complicated over time and was eventually settled out of course.
Poltergeist III was released four months after her death in her honor. Her co-stars in that movie were discouraged from giving interviews about the film to avoid questions about her death.
Needless to say that I enjoyed Heather O'Rourke in the Poltergeist films as well as her appearances on Happy Days.
Such a loss! A young life cut off before it really began.
Louie The Movie Buff