O'Rourke and Zelda Rubinstein were the only original cast members to appear in the third film, Poltergeist III. O'Rourke played the role in all three films. For her work in Poltergeist, O'Rourke earned between US$35,000–$100,000. When scared by performing a particular stunt, Spielberg replaced O'Rourke with a stunt double wearing a blonde wig and when disturbed by the portrayal of adult abuse toward the child characters, Spielberg did not require her to perform the take again. The New York Times noted that she had played the key role in the films and commented, "With her wide eyes, long blonde hair and soft voice, she was so striking that the sequel played off her presence."ĭuring the production of the original Poltergeist, Spielberg twice accommodated the child actress when frightened. In the Poltergeist trilogy, O'Rourke played Carol Anne Freeling, a young suburban girl who becomes the conduit and target for supernatural entities. After his lunch, Spielberg approached the family and offered O'Rourke the Poltergeist role she was signed the next day, beating Drew Barrymore who was up for the role. While eating in the MGM commissary, Spielberg saw five-year-old Heather O'Rourke having lunch with her mother while older sister Tammy was shooting Pennies from Heaven. In a contemporary interview with American Premiere magazine, director Steven Spielberg explained that he was looking for a "'beatific' four-year-old child.every mother's dream" for the lead in his 1982 horror film Poltergeist. At the time of her death, the family was living in Lakeside, California. In between acting jobs, O'Rourke attended Big Bear Elementary School where she was president of her class. Her success later allowed the family to purchase a home in Big Bear Lake, California. After her parents' divorce, O'Rourke rarely saw her birth father and called her stepfather "Dad".īefore Heather had begun acting, the family lived in a trailer park in Anaheim.
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Kathleen and Michael divorced in 1981, and O'Rourke's mother married truck driver James A. Her mother worked as a seamstress and her father was a construction worker. O'Rourke was born in San Diego, California to Kathleen and Michael O'Rourke. She died at the age of 12 of cardiac arrest and septic shock caused by a misdiagnosed intestinal stenosis in February 1988. In addition to her roles in the Poltergeist series, O'Rourke also had her recurring role as Heather Pfister on Happy Days from 1982 to 1983, and made several television guest appearances. She would go on to reprise the role in the second and third installments. Spielberg cast her as Carol Anne Freeling in the 1982 horror film Poltergeist. A child actress, Heather was discovered at the age of five by director Steven Spielberg while eating lunch with her mother at the MGM commissary.