Heather O'Rourke

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BIRTHDAY

December 27, 1975

San Diego, CA

DIED

February 01, 1988

RECENT CREDITS

Poltergeist 3 (FILM) Jun. 10, 1988

Poltergeist 2: The Other Side (FILM) May. 23, 1986

Poltergeist (FILM) Jan. 1, 1982

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BIOGRAPHY

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While eating lunch with her mother in the MGM commissary, five-year-old Heather O'Rourke was spotted by filmmaker Steven Spielberg. Within months, little Heather was cast in the Spielberg-produced scare piece Poltergeist, playing the little girl who becomes the conduit for the film's TV-dwelling spectres. Before she was seven, Heather had entered the collective pop-culture consciousness of America with her Poltergeist catchphrases "They're here!" and "They're baa-aack!" In the fall of 1982, Heather joined the cast of TV's Happy Days as regular Linda Purl's daughter; she went on to appear in several guest-star spots, as well as the two Poltergeist sequels. On the first day of February of 1988, Heather O'Rourke was rushed to the Children's Hospital of San Diego, complaining of chest pains (later revealed to be the result of septic shock); while undergoing surgery, the 12-year-old actress died of heart failure.

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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Headlines

25 Creepiest Lines in Cinema

Oct. 28, 2008

Whether the line is instantly recognizable or you’re remembering it all over again, the effect is still the same: Shiver. Counting down, we’ve collected 25 of the creepiest lines uttered in movies.

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