In the Spring of 1981 when filming on Poltergeist started, Heather had just turned five a few months earlier and had a few commercials and Fantasy Island to her acting credit, but her experiences did not include doing anything that actually scared her. Her mother worked as a seamstress and her father was a carpenter. Heather O'Rourke Height and Weight. Seating in the commissary dining room was sometimes scarce so upon finding an unoccupied table, it was Heathers job to sit there and save it while Tammy and her mother would go and get their lunch. Heather O'Rourke Age. Actress: Poltergeist. In anticipation, MGM announced their plans in 1984 to film Poltergeist II and so with the rumour of the sequel already making its rounds, and with a completed screenplay and script, all that the producers needed was a director (or so they thought). Heather O'Rourke was born on December 27, to Kathleen and Michael O'Rourke. Heather Michele O'Rourke was born on December 27, 1975 in Santee, San Diego, California, to Kathleen, a seamstress, and Michael O'Rourke, a construction worker. He has managed to keep his family away from the media. She was discovered by director Steven Spielberg when she was visiting MGM's studios. She is 46 years old and is a Capricorn. Loved: roses, swimming, pepperoni pizza, computer games, and more. Heather's parents, who live in Big Bear but are also believed to have a home in San Diego, were too distraught to comment, Wardlowe said. She screamed until she broke down in tears. He thought she was just too young (she had just turned five), and he was actually looking for a girl at least 6 years old, but he saw something in her and asked her to come in a second time with a scary story book. Heather O'Rourke was born on December 27, 1975, in San Diego, California, to Kathleen and Michael O'Rourke. The shock prompted full cardiac and pulmonary arrest. A child . The operation was completed and the intensive care resumed, but Heather showed no sign of improvement. Her mother was her constant companion and, Heather declared, her best friend, but she also made friends on the set quickly and would eventually become very dear to the cast and crew, especially director Gary Sherman. With her mothers permission, doctors performed an exploratory procedure and promptly discovered that Heather indeed had an obstruction in her small intestine that had become infected and had already burst. Now thoroughly alarmed, Kathleen called the local hospital, which advised her to bring Heather in right away. Her mother, Kathleen, did not know she was pregnant with twins when she had the miscarriage. . She initially failed the . Sees candies, which were not normally available in Big Bear, were the featured sale item as well as hot chocolate and a few other goodies. At the end of January 1988, Heather started feeling slightly ill again. Heather prefers to keep details about her spouse and family members private. When her mother returned, the stranger introduced himself as Steven Spielberg. The shot was painstakingly setup by Spielberg himself and had all the promise of being a spectacular effect on film. Heather O'Rourke (1975-1988) Heather Michele O'Rourke (Bernie or Heath ) was born on December 27, 1975 in Santee, San Diego, California, to Kathleen, a seamstress, and Michael O'Rourke, a construction worker. The show premiered in March 1980 and lasted until September 1981, and the experience and the exposure on national television helped boost Tammys fledgling career as a dancer. It is also not known if O'Rourke has any siblings. But, like any other young girl her age she most of all, loved the occasional all-day shopping excursion, which at times, was exhausting for her mother and sister Tammy. Children came to the set where they were left alone by their parents. After a few more featured appearances in some of Heathers shows, Tammy would retire from acting for good. That is when she found out she was pregnant with Heather. Two years later, she reprised her role of Carol Anne Freeling in the sequel of Poltergeist, titled Poltergeist II: The Other Side. Poltergeist II began production in the summer of 1985 and Heather was very excited to be working with her onscreen family again but filming with director Brian Gibson soon became an arduous task as the production was plagued with delays and other strange occurrences. Was in a school play two months before her final breath. . They started a candy selling business in front of the Honda dealership where their stepfather was employed. Other non-acting TV appearances included: an afternoon on the 1986 Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon where she took phone pledges as part of a panel of child actors, two stints as a celebrity judge on a special childrens edition of the popular amateur talent show called Puttin On The Hits, and as a guest on shows including The Merv Griffin Show, and various AM talk shows and PM entertainment shows. Her ex boyfriend strangled her. After the miscarriage she was still feeling life inside of her. View agent, publicist, legal and company contact details on IMDbPro, Child Actors & Former Child Actors -- Gone Too Soon. My parents put everything in a trust fund for me. We don't have much information about She's past relationship and any previous engaged. Her favorite movie of all time was Disney's. Since Heather was still too young for school, she always accompanied her mother to Tammys rehearsals and filming, and it did not take long before Mrs. ORourke noticed that Heather too, seemed interested in acting. The young actor played Carol-Anne Freeling in all three of Steven Spielberg's Poltergeist films and also had parts in popular TV shows Webster and Happy Days. After that series ended, Heather continued to audition and receive offers and over the course of the next five years she was a familiar face on television. Details about O'rourke's husband are not available currently. She had Irish, English, German, and Danish ancestry. This was the famous closet-sucking scene for which they used a special moveable room. Heather O'rourke Parents Details about her parents are not known to the public, however, she has a sibling, an elder sister. Heather agreed, and as promised, did not talk to him. But the illness lingered and as pre-production for Poltergeist III approached, Heathers mother and even her agent and manager were worried that she was still ill. I don't think it would scare anyone. Upon further examination of her actual report cards over the years, she made C's and D's in her least liked subjects in school, math and science, but at the end of her life was a straight A student. She joined the station in October 2011. By age five, barely after starting kindergarten, she would be making her first TV show appearance on ABCs Fantasy Island. She is best remembered for her roles of 'Carol Anne Freeling' in the Poltergeist horror movie franchise (1982, 1986, and 1988). Heather O'Rourke appeared destined for greatness after breaking through as a child star in the Poltergeist movies and on Happy Days in the 1980s. Since Heather was in the habit of imitating her older sister, it was natural to expect that she would follow in her footsteps and so when she was barely old enough, Heather began showcasing her own talents with some onstage singing and dancing. Dating & Relationship status She is currently single. During her three-year tenure as a student at Big Bear Elementary School, Heather was elected President of her 5th grade class (a position that she considered a great honor), took lessons in flute, struggled with math, and was an avid reader of Nancy Drew mysteries and love stories. She spent the remainder of the day resting on the sofa, while her mother periodically checked on her. She died during surgery in 1988 after being misdiagnosed with Crohn's disease. In addition to not working with any other familiar faces, Poltergeist III was to take place in Chicago which meant that most of it would be filmed there as well, and for the first time in her life, Heather would be far away from home for many months. Her father was a carpenter, and her mother was a seamstress. Owing to her success, her family was able to purchase a house in Big Bear Lake, California. Heather O'rourke Family and Relationship Father (Dad): Not Known Mother: Not Known Siblings (Brothers and Sisters): An elder sister Marital Status: Married Husband/Spouse: Married to Anonymous Dating / Boyfriend: Not Applicable Children: Two Heather O'rourke Networth and Salary Net Worth: Under Review Salary: $28,774 - $71,519 Her big break came when she auditioned for The Don Crichton Dancers, a dance troupe consisting of 5 boys and 5 girls that was scheduled to appear regularly on CBSs The Tim Conway Show. The family resides in New York City. Said that if a Poltergeist IV would to happen it would have been her last film in the series. O'Rourke became ill in early 1987 and was misdiagnosed by doctors at Kaiser Permanente Hospital as having Crohn's disease. And the unusual circumstances of her passing fueled a lot of parent's fears that maybe such a fate could take their children away just as abruptly. Her mother claimed a wrong diagnosis was responsible for her (Heather's) death. They eventually closed-up shop for good and Heather decided to stick with acting. At the interview, he told Heather that it was a scary movie and that she would have to pretend to act scared and scream a lot even though there was nothing really there to scare her. THE mysterious deaths of 1980s child actress Heather O'Rourke and three of her co-stars from the film Poltergeist has sparked fears of a "Hollywood curse". The following clip showed him strolling down the street at 2 a.m., heading to work. One scene in particular was very physically demanding and could not be performed convincingly with a stunt double. Heather Michele O'Rourke was born on December 27, 1975, in San Diego, [3] [4] to Kathleen and Michael O'Rourke. They returned home and her mother was told to monitor her condition and to bring her back if needed. Her facial features were puffier than usual in Poltergeist 3, due to the . The only unanswered questions were, could she act, and more importantly, could she scream convincingly? She had an older sister, Tammy O'Rourke, also an actress. During a brief discussion about how she felt, Heather told her mother that she was O.K and that she was still intending to go to school. Heather entered American cinematic pop-culture before first grade. Family : Childhood : Parents divorced; Family : Childhood : Sibling . Born in San Diego, California, she was discovered in 1980 by director Steven Spielberg, while eating lunch with her mother in the MGM Studio Commissary. 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