The curse of “Poltergeist”: how the actors of the cult horror film died one after the other

The first film in the Poltergeist series was released in 1982. Written by Steven Spielberg and directed by Toub Hooper. The plot is about the Freeling family, which the spirits begin to pursue. The exciting story was a hit with the public and professional audiences – the picture received three Oscar nominations.

However, the success story is overshadowed by a series of cast deaths in the film, which has led to many talking about the curse. So, whose life did the Poltergeist take?

First on this scary list was actress Dominique Dunn, who played the eldest daughter of the Freeling family named Dana. She died shortly after the premiere of the first installment in 1982 and her death was violent. The young actress was strangled by her jealous boyfriend Thomas Sweeney two weeks before her 23rd birthday. The girl managed to be taken to hospital, but she never regained consciousness and there was no brain activity. Days later, the actress’ parents had to make the difficult decision to disconnect their daughter from life support.

While filming the second film in 1985, actor Julian Beck, who played preacher Henry Caine, died. He was 60 years old and the cause of death was stomach cancer, which he had been diagnosed with two years earlier. That’s not to say that this death was completely sudden, but in the overall context it seems rather grim, given that in the film Beck didn’t quite play a preacher, but a demon who takes on his appearance. .

His colleague Will Sampson, who was a representative of the native American population, also died. Sampson, who had painted before and was a rodeo champion, began his film career quite late. He was already over forty when he starred in his first film, but what! It was a painting by Milos Forman “Flight over the Cuckoo’s Nest”. In the last years of his life, the actor suffered from a severe autoimmune disease that adversely affected the internal organs. On June 3, 1987, a year after the release of the second “Poltergeist”, Sampson died following a heart and lung transplant. He was 53 years old.

The latest victim was the youngest actress in the saga, Heather O’Rourke, who played Carol Ann, the youngest daughter of the Freeling family. She was only 12 when her life was tragically cut short. Heather died in 1988 of cardiac arrest during an operation to remove a bowel obstruction. The correct diagnosis and the cause of her poor health were established too late – for almost a year the symptoms experienced by the girl were attributed to Crohn’s disease – an inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract. Heather was buried in the same cemetery with her on-screen sister Dominique Dunn – such a mystical coincidence.

The only surviving young actor who played the children of the Freeling family was Oliver Robins. By the way, he was very skeptical about the story of the curse and considered everything to be only tragic coincidences, which, however, attracted the public for decades. He did not build a successful film career, stopping filming in 1986, but later became a screenwriter and director. Today, he is already 51 years old.

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