10 child stars who tragically died very young (With Pictures)

19. Heather O’Rourke

If you have watched the popular movie Poltergeist, then you know of Heather O’Rourke. She played the pretty blonde-haired, blue-eyed daughter of the terrorized family. She was cast by Stephen Spielberghimself as Carol Anne Freeling in the 1982 horror flick. She was also in the sequel and the third installment of the movie. Heather died at the extremely young age of 12 years old. In 1988, she was diagnosed with intestinal stenosis, although the doctors were wrong about her condition. She ended up going into cardiac arrest and septic shock while doctors were trying to help her in the operating room.

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18. Matthew Garber

Matthew Garber died at the age of 21 and was well-known for his role as Michael Banks in the Mary Poppins film from 1964. He was also an actor in The Three Lives of Thomasina and The Gnome-Mobile. He went on a trip to India and contracted hepatitis. This disease spread to his pancreas and he ended up dying from complications due to pancreatitis in 1977. Although Garber was inflicted with hepatitis, he was unaware of it. It was only a few months afterwards that he was taken to a hospital in London, and by that time, the illness had spread. Garber was named a Disney Legend in 2004, posthumously.