Heather O'Rourke

Heather O'Rourke occupies a uniquely tender place in my memory of cinema. As Carol Anne in Poltergeist, she anchored one of the most iconic horror films ever made before most children learn to read fluently, and her presence, luminous and eerily calm, is the reason the film still works decades later. Her death in 1988 at just twelve years old remains one of Hollywood's genuine tragedies, and I think it is why audiences hold her memory so protectively. What I take from her brief career is how much a single performance can outlive its performer; she has been gone far longer than she lived, yet she has never left the screen.

Name (English)

Heather O'Rourke

Name (Japanese)

ヘザー・オルーク

Reading

へざー・おるーく

Born

December 27, 1975 – February 1, 1988

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Capricorn / Rabbit

Origin

San Diego, California, United States

Occupation

film actor / television actor

Motto

Private

• Official sitehttp://www.heatherorourke.net
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%98%E3%82%B6%E3%83%BC%E3%83%BB%E3%82%AA%E3%83%AB%E3%83%BC%E3%82%AF

Tags

• California
• film actor
• television actor

Last updated

2026-06-11

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.