That was definitely her illness, correct? I mean, despite being only 12 years old, she looked very deathly pale in some of her scenes and whatnot. Did the director explained as to why she was so puffed up and very pale in some of her scenes, save for the last scene.
shareProbably some of it, the medication she was on was reported to cause it as a side effect. On the other hand though -- lots of little girls get those round, puffy features when they start to develop and start going through puberty. I imagine it was some of both.
She was maybe on some sort of steroid, presumably Prednisolone or hydrocortisone for her crohns, a side effect of this can cause puffiness, hence the larger cheeks
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Yes, she was suffering from Crohn's Disease, a chronic inflammation of the intestinal tract. Sadly, the disease claimed her life during production of this awful film, so its safe to say that the disease was at a very advanced stage. No doubt, she was a brave little soul to work through such an illness. May she rest in peace. She will be remembered fondly for her performance in the original film.
sharetotally agree with the comments from you chas437 !! this film is awful and heather shouldnt have even have been part of it with what she was having to deal with !! no one will forget her from the original film !! all healthy and beautiful ! could have became a huge star if she had lived :( rip heather x
shareif you look her up on wikipedia, you'll see that se was mis-diagnosed with crohn's disease and the medication caused the puffy face. she died from a heart attack caused by an intestinal problem unrelated to crohn's disease which could have been solved with minor surgery. the family sued the hospital. quite why they filmed a film when she was that ill. really the second one wasn't that good and the third one seems exploitative although they told the cast not to talk about the film before its release so as not to avoid being asked about her.
share"...the third one seems exploitative although they told the cast not to talk about the film before its release so as not to avoid being asked about her".
That's completely not true. Several cast members, Tom Skerritt, Nancy Allen, Lara Flynn Boyle, they all said they had no idea Heather was ill. Director Gary Sherman was so heart broke when she passed away that he didn't even wanted to finish the movie, but he had a contract with the studio, so they made him do it.
If this movie is exploitative, sorry but so is the second one. Both movies are trying to make more money with the success of the Poltergeist franchise. Big deal, it happens all the time in Hollywood, it's all about money.
If there's anything to blame here, I'd blame the lame doctors, who said Heather could work as long as she took her medication, and couldn't see what was wrong with her until it was too late.
"Heather shouldn't be doing this "awful" movie while she was ill".
That was up to her mother and the doctors to decide. And they said yes. It's not the movie's fault.
Wow. Sometimes there is something to every story there. Thanks.
sharethe medication she was on puffed her face up.
share[deleted]
her mother constantly took her to the doctors, and i think her mother was accused of being paranoid!
Kathy O'Rourke was not paranoid, she was a loving, fiercely protective mother who wanted answers to why Heather was ill!
Yeah I don't find these movies to be at all exploitive to Heather. I may be wrong, but I thought in the E true hollywood story the actress said she wanted on her tombstone for it to say "Star of Poltergeist I, II & III". She loved making the movies, and I'm glad she got to be in all 3. It's not like being in the movie caused her to die.
shareI know this topic is a bit old, but I have to throw my 2 cents in here. First off, in order to even get insurance to be able to even step FOOT on a movie set you have to undergo a physical by the doctor studios use, so part of the onus was on the doctor who gave her a 'clean bill of health'
The other point I have is, the morning that Heather collapsed & an ambulance transported, they took her to Kaiser Clinic or some other *beep* she went into cardiac arrest on the way for God's sake! The 'doctors' at Kaiser had her airlifted to a Children's Hospital in San Diego where they took one look at the X-Rays from the Clinic & immediately red lined her to an OR, but by the time they got her there she had already gone into septic shock & as we know, they lost her on the table.
I dunno about the rest of you, but I firmly believe that the delay from her being transported to a Clinic instead of ya know, an ACTUAL hospital & her having to be airlifted to San Diego, thus delaying things even further, that by the time she actually GOT TO an OR she had already passed the point of no return
Hence that (plus the misdiagnosis) is why the family sued.
shareCompletely UNTRUE. Besides, did you see Part 2? The actor playing the preacher was in his FINAL STAGES OF CANCER WHILE FILMING THE MOVIE. He was DYING WHILE FILMING THE MOVIE which throws your entire theory of actors needing a clear bill of health by a doctor before going on set, out of the window.
shareOf course actors need to be medically assessed to see if they're fit to work on the movie set, how else are the studios going to get insurance? they don't have to be 100% perfect but they do have to be well enough to work on a movie - Julian beck had Cancer, He and the people behind the scenes of P2 already knew that but he was deemed well enough to be able to complete the movie.
The medical tests are for serious underlying, unknown health problems that need to be treated and could interfere with filming, Heather was taking medication for crohns at the time and the people working on P3 knew all about that but it was thought she would be fine to work because it was being treated - the doctors missed the blockage in her intestine that would take her life.
You would be correct. It's disgusting!
shareShe was blown up like a balloon. I thought at first she had kidney disease as it can cause swelling like that.
Well, the city's being built and I'm winning this game. So don't interrupt us with trifles.