Heather Michele ´*•.¸(*•.¸♥ ¸.•*´)¸.•*´ Orourke

Born at 12:28
AM Pacific Standard Time.

Was a fraternal twin to an unborn baby brother.r Tom Skerritt was one of her pallbearers at her
funeral.

Is buried in the same cemetery as Poltergeist costar Dominique Dunne.

¸ ♥ `*•.¸ ♥`*•.¸ ♥ `*•.¸ ♥ `*•.¸ ♥ `*•.¸ ♥ `*•.¸ ♥ `*•.¸ ♥
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`*•.¸ ♥ `*•.¸ ♥ `*•.¸ ♥ `*•.¸ ♥ `*•.¸ ♥Heather Michele O’Rourke (December
27, 1975 - February 1, 1988).
Born Heather Michele O'Rourke on 27 December 1975 in Santee, San Diego, California, Heather entered
American cinematic pop-culture before she entered first grade. She was sitting alone in the MGM
Commissary waiting for her mother when a stranger approached her asking her name. "My name is
Heather O'Rourke", she said. "But you're a stranger, and I can't talk to you". When her mother
returned, the stranger introduced himself as Steven Spielberg. She failed her first audition when
she laughed at a stuffed animal Spielberg presented her with. 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. He asked her to
scream a lot. She screamed until she broke down in tears. The next day at the commissary, Spielberg
told her and her family, "I don't know what it is about her, but she's got the job". She instantly
became a star overnight and was easily recognized at her favorite theme park, Disneyland, and
everywhere in California. In the years that followed, Heather was a familiar face on TV in "Happy
Days" (1974) (1982-1983), "Webster" (1983) (1983-1984), and "Still the Beaver" (1985) (1986-1987),
three shows in which she had recurring roles. In 1986, the highly anticipated sequel to her first
movie, Poltergeist (1982), Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986) debuted in theaters; it was her
riveting performance in this film that cemented her a place in Hollywood history. In January 1987,
Heather began to have flu like symptoms and her feet swelled. She was taken to Kaiser Hospital and
they confirmed it was only the flu, but when symptoms continued, they diagnosed her as having
Crohn's Disease, a chronic inflammation of the intestine. She was on medication throughout the
filming of her next project, Poltergeist III (1988), and her cheeks were puffy in some scenes. She
never complained during filming and did not appear sick to fellow cast members. When filming
temporarily stopped in June, Heather and her family went on a road trip from Chicago, to New
Orleans, to Orlando and all the way back to Lakeside where they lived at the time. Heather was well
until January 31, 1988, Super Bowl Sunday. She was unable to keep anything in her stomach and
crawled into bed with her parents that night, saying that she didn't feel well. The next morning,
February 1, sitting at the breakfast table, she couldn't swallow her toast or Gatorade. Her mother
noticed her fingers were blue and her hands were cold. Kathleen called the doctor's and was getting
ready to put her clothes on when Heather fainted on the kitchen floor. When the paramedics came in,
Heather insisted that she was "really okay" and was worried about missing school that day. In the
ambulance, Heather suffered cardiac arrest and died on the operating table at 2:43 p.m miss in you
angel xxx.¸ ♥ `*•.¸ ♥ `*•.¸ ♥ `*•.¸ ♥ `*•.¸ ♥ `*•.¸ ♥ `*•.¸ ♥
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♥ `*•.¸ ♥ `*•.¸ ♥ `*•.¸ ♥ `*•.¸ ♥ `*•.¸ ♥Her mother claimed a wrong
diagnosis was responsible for her death. she loved to go shopping. But according to her mother
Kathy, shopping with Heather was a tremendous effort. The girl had to have everything match, from
shoes to earrings. She also loved to make and eat sweets, and was the student-body president at her
school. For a pet, she had a St. Bernard. Her home life did not, ironically, include the viewing of
certain films...particularly not horror films.

Fellow cast members described Heather as having a calming influence on the set. They also described
cast meetings with her: everyone would be quickly leafing through the script, while Heather was
sitting calmly. Being able to memorize 60 pages of script an hour, she would have already memorized
the entire script.Her favorite movie of all time was Disney's dumbo She died while on hiatus from
filming Poltergeist III (1988), her final movie, which is dedicated to her memory. She was replaced
with a blonde stand-in.

Performed from age 3 in numerous commercials before her Poltergeist (1982) role, most notably for
Mattel and McDonalds. She started modeling in 1979 for Mattel "Tuff Stuff" Number Blocks.

As a gift from the crew, she got to keep the goldfish from Poltergeist (1982).

She grew very close to director Gary Sherman while filming Poltergeist III (1988), and was very
proud of the fact that she performed all her own stuntwork for this movie.

Her last words were "I love you" spoken to her mother
Date, time, place and cause of death: February 1, 1988, at 2:43 p.m., Children's Hospital and Health
Center, 8001 Frost Street, San Diego, California, U.S.A. (Cardio-respiratory arrest/septic
shock/acute bowel obstruction)
.