Heather O'Rourke (December 27, 1975 – February 1, 1988) was an American child actress who played Carol Anne Freeling in the Poltergeist film trilogy and made several television guest appearances.
O'Rourke was born on December 27, 1975 in San Diego, California, the second daughter of Kathleen O'Rourke. Before O'Rourke's death in 1988, her mother married James "Jim" A. Peele. The family, including O'Rourke's older sister Tammy, lived in Lakeside, C...
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Heather O'Rourke (December 27, 1975 – February 1, 1988) was an American child actress who played Carol Anne Freeling in the Poltergeist film trilogy and made several television guest appearances.
O'Rourke was born on December 27, 1975 in San Diego, California, the second daughter of Kathleen O'Rourke. Before O'Rourke's death in 1988, her mother married James "Jim" A. Peele. The family, including O'Rourke's older sister Tammy, lived in Lakeside, California at the time of her death.
Tammy O'Rourke was cast in the MGM film Pennies from Heaven, when Heather O'Rourke was discovered by filmmaker Steven Spielberg; Spielberg found the five-year-old having lunch with her mother in the MGM commissary. Within months, O'Rourke was cast in the 1982 horror film written and produced by Spielberg, Poltergeist.
In the Poltergeist trilogy, O'Rourke played Carol Anne Freeling, a young suburban girl who becomes the conduit and target for supernatural entities. The New York Times noted that she had played...
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