Melissa Gilbert Urges Stage Parents to 'Be Sure' It's What Child Wants in Wake of Daveigh Chase Death

Melissa Gilbert said she is “truly heartbroken” by the death of Daveigh Chase, and as a former child star herself, is urging parents to think carefully about what their children want when it comes to acting.

Chase died on June 16 at age 35, with the Los Angeles Medical Examiner ruling that she died of AIDS. Chronic polysubstance use, or the repeated use of more than one drug or substance over a period of time, was listed under “other significant conditions.”

Gilbert, who as a child actress famously starred as Laura Ingalls Wilder on Little House on the Prairie, said she worked on a pilot with a young Chase for “a couple of days” some 20-plus years ago.

“This is the Daveigh Chase I knew,” Gilbert wrote in a caption to a photo of Chase as a child in braided pigtails. “I only worked with Daveigh a couple of days but I could see she was bright both in countenance and in mind. She was bubbly, sweet and professional. But there was something else there, a push or need to perform … for her parents.”

Gilbert said that given her professional background, she has been around many child actors. “As a consequence, I’ve also been around a lot of stage parents. Many child actors grow up just fine, whether they stay in ‘the business’ or not. That is 100% due to really solid, wise parenting. Child stardom, in itself, is not a guarantee of dysfunction,” she said. “However, when a parent or parents lose sight of who THEY are, of what their true responsibility is, and their lives revolve solely around their little star child, well, that’s where the trouble begins.

“It takes strong parenting to handle all that comes with it. The terrible part is, that so few child actors continue on to have careers as actors,” she added. “For most, it goes away, and when that happens it not only devastates the child but it turns the whole family upside down.”

In light of the tragic cricumstances surrounding Chase’s death, Gilbert cautioned stage parents to be certain that acting is what their child wants. “Today, reading the circumstances of Daveigh’s death, I’m truly heartbroken,” she said. “I certainly understand substance-addiction disorder but this sweet girl’s death is so much more. If I had the chance to speak to any parents who were thinking about getting their children in the industry I would tell them to please, please make sure that they are doing it for the right reasons. That they will take the child to an accountant regularly so that he or she knows exactly what he or she is making, and where it is going.

“To be sure it’s something the child really wants. To be sure that that child has a life outside of the industry that is thriving and full of friends and responsibilities and ‘normal’ things,” she concluded. “I would also ask that these parents memorize this sweet girl’s face and her story so that it never happens again.”