Melissa Gilbert called out careless parents of child stars in an emotional tribute post to Daveigh Chase, the “Lilo & Stitch” and “The Ring” actor who died of AIDS on June 16 at 35 years old.
In an Instagram post, Gilbert revealed that she and Chase starred in a pilot together more than 20 years ago, and she could see a concerning parenting dynamic.
“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 wrote in her caption, which was accompanied by a picture of a young Chase smiling.
Gilbert was also a child actor, having famously starred in “Little House on the Prairie,” which she wrote led to her being frequently exposed to stage parents.
“Child stardom, in itself, is not a guarantee of dysfunction. 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,” Gilbert continued. “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. For most, it goes away, and when that happens it not only devastates the child, but it turns the whole family upside down.”
