Heather O'Rourke
Heather O'Rourke at Disneyland
Born	December 27, 1975 San Diego, California, United States
Died	February 1, 1988 San Diego, California, United States

Heather O'Rourke (December 27, 1975 – February 1, 1988) was a "1980's" American child actress who starred in the Poltergeist movie trilogy. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (523x780, 97 KB) Rare photo of Heather ORourke at Disneyland, in black and white. ... Disneyland Park, which used to be simply referenced as Disneyland from 1955-1998, and has always unofficialy been called Walt Disneys Magic Kingdom, is a theme park at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, USA, 28 miles from Downtown Los Angeles, and is owned and operated by The Walt... December 27 is the 361st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (362nd in leap years). ... 1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday. ... Nickname: Americas Finest City Location of San Diego within San Diego County Coordinates: Country United States State California County San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders City Attorney Michael Aguirre City Council Scott Peters Kevin Faulconer Toni Atkins Tony Young Brian Maienschein Donna Frye Jim Madaffer Ben Hueso Area    - City 963. ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Area  Ranked 3rd  - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²)  - Width 250 miles (400 km)  - Length 770 miles (1,240 km)  - % water 4. ... February 1 is the 32nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... December 27 is the 361st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (362nd in leap years). ... 1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday. ... February 1 is the 32nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The term child actor is generally applied to a child acting in motion pictures or television, but also to an adult who began his or her acting career as a child; to avoid confusion the latter is also called a former child actor. ... Laserdisc cover of the first Poltergeist film The Poltergeist movies are a trilogy of horror films produced in the 1980s. ...

Born Heather Michele O'Rourke in San Diego, California, she was discovered in the summer of 1980 by Steven Spielberg while having lunch at the MGM Studios Commissary with her mother and older sister Tammy O'Rourke, a dancer in the film Pennies From Heaven. Spielberg, who was preparing to film E.T., was also looking for a child to play the role of Carol-Anne Freeling in his upcoming production of Poltergeist. He originally thought that she was too young for the part (Heather was 4 1/2 years old at the time) but after an interview and a "scream test," he cast her in the role. Nickname: Americas Finest City Location of San Diego within San Diego County Coordinates: Country United States State California County San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders City Attorney Michael Aguirre City Council Scott Peters Kevin Faulconer Toni Atkins Tony Young Brian Maienschein Donna Frye Jim Madaffer Ben Hueso Area    - City 963. ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Area  Ranked 3rd  - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²)  - Width 250 miles (400 km)  - Length 770 miles (1,240 km)  - % water 4. ... Steven Allan Spielberg, KBE (born December 18, 1946) is an Academy Award-winning American film director. ... For alternate meanings of MGM, see MGM (disambiguation). ... Pennies From Heaven is a 1978 BBC Television drama serial by the highly-regarded television playwright Dennis Potter. ... ET (or et) is Latin for and; it can also refer to: Estonian language (ISO 639 alpha-2, et) E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the 1982 film, or the related video game extraterrestrials in general Eastern Time, both in standard time and daylight time Entertainment Tonight engineering technology elapsed time...

Poltergeist was released in June 1982, and O'Rourke's line, an eerie "They're he-eere!" entered American pop culture. Her success in Poltergeist immediately led to television work, and in 1982–83 she was a regular on the sitcom Happy Days, playing the daughter of Fonzie's girlfriend. Popular culture, or pop culture, is the vernacular (peoples) culture that prevails in a modern society. ... See also: 1981 in television, other events of 1982, 1983 in television and the list of years in television. ... See also: 1982 in television, other events of 1983, 1984 in television and the list of years in television. For the American network television schedule, please see 1983-84 American network television schedule. ... A sitcom or situation comedy is a genre of comedy performance originally devised for radio but today typically found on television. ... Happy Days was a popular American television sitcom that originally aired between 1974 and 1984 on the ABC television network. ... Whos cool, and has two thumbs? This guy! -Fonzie Arthur Fonzarelli, popularly known as Fonzie or simply The Fonz, was a fictional character in the American sitcom Happy Days (1974–1984) played by Henry Winkler. ...

In between Heather's numerous television appearances, Poltergeist II was filmed and released in 1986 and once again, she coined another pop culture phrase, when she said (nervously this time): "They're ba-aaack!". The Poltergeist movies are a trilogy of horror films produced in the 1980s. ...

In early 1987, Heather became ill with what was eventually diagnosed as Crohn's Disease, and subsequently underwent medical treatment during parts of the filming of Poltergeist III, which took place in Chicago. Principal photography lasted between April and June of that year, with June 1988 as its scheduled release date, and by all accounts Heather finished her work on the film. After a family vacation, Heather returned home to California, apparently recovered from her illness. H&E section of non-caseating granuloma seen in the colon of a patient with Crohns disease. ... Chicago (officially named the City of Chicago) is the third largest city in the United States (after New York City and Los Angeles), with an official population of 2,896,016, as of the 2000 census. ...

She remained healthy and symptom-free until the morning of February 1, 1988, when she became seriously ill and was rushed to the hospital where it was discovered that she had developed an acute bowel obstruction. Despite surviving emergency surgery, she died of complications caused primarily by septic shock resulting from the obstruction and ensuing infection. She had only just turned 12 the previous December. February 1 is the 32nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... In medicine, an acute disease is a disease with either or both of: a rapid onset; a short course (as opposed to a chronic course). ... Bowel obstruction is a mechanical blockage of the intestines, preventing the normal transit of the products of digestion. ... Septic shock is a serious medical condition causing such effects as multiple organ failure and death in response to infection and sepsis. ...

MGM decided to re-shoot the ending of Poltergeist III in March 1988 using a body double stand-in. The director of the film, Gary Sherman, claims the ending was not a re-shoot, and that O'Rourke died "before they could film the original ending." However, his claim is unsubstantiated, as the finished film was rated "PG" by the MPAA in November 1987, before O'Rourke died. [1] A body double is a general term for someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character in any recorded visual medium, whether videotape or film. ... Stand-ins in film are often misunderstood to be doubles for the actors, that is, people who double for the actor during filming, e. ... Gary Sherman, born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, started directing short films, commercials, industrials, and documentaries while still an undergraduate at IITs Institute of Design. ...

Heather O'Rourke was interred in the outer wall of the aptly named "Sanctuary Of Tenderness" mausoleum at Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, California. Her tomb is nearby to those of Truman Capote, Mel Torme and her Poltergeist co-star ("sister") Dominique Dunne. St. ... Nickname: City of Angels Location within Los Angeles County in the state of California Coordinates: State California County Los Angeles County Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Area    - City 1,290. ... Truman García Capote (pronounced ) (September 30, 1924 – August 25, 1984) was an American writer whose non-fiction, stories, novels and plays are recognized literary classics. ... Mel Tormé (September 13, 1925 - June 5, 1999) was a jazz singer with a light, velvety, high-tenor voice. ... Dominique Dunne (November 23, 1959 – November 4, 1982) was an American actress. ...

External links

• The Heather O'Rourke Memorial Site
• Heather O'Rourke Network
• Heather O'Rourke at the Internet Movie Database
• Heather O'Rourke at Findagrave.com