A CHILDHOOD CUT SH0RT: The H0rrific Fate Of A Huge Young Star K!lled By Her Father
Judith Barsi was a huge star in the 1980s (Image: NBC)
She rocketed to stardom at just nine, featuring in some of Hollywood’s biggest films — yet barely a year later, young Judith Barsi would be tragically k!lled at the hands of her own father.
The endearing youngster began her career in adverts before progressing to increasingly prominent roles on the silver screen. She was just six when she landed her first part as Kimberley McDonald in the true crime television series, Fatal Vision.
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More than 70 commercials followed before her breakthrough moment, when she was cast as Thea Brody in the Jaws sequel, Jaws: The Revenge.
Judith was subsequently chosen to voice Ducky in The Land Before Time in 1988, and then Anne-Marie in All Dogs Go To Heaven the following year.
Still in the fourth grade, she was already commanding earnings of £75,000 a year — the equivalent of £200,000 in today’s money. Yet despite her considerable wealth and earning power, Judith’s troubles were only just beginning, reports the Daily Star.
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Judith was the voice of Ducky in The Land Before Time (Image: undefined)
Petite for her age at just 3ft 8ins, at 10 she was placed on a course of hormone injections to stimulate growth, a process the young girl found extremely distressing. Her tiny frame frequently saw her cast as children considerably younger than herself.
Yet her star continued to rise, and with it came a fresh set of difficulties for the gifted youngster. Her father, Jozsef, was already battling alcoholism and grew progressively resentful and embittered by his daughter’s achievements.
On multiple occasions he threatened to murder both his wife and daughter Judith, and was arrested three times for drink-driving. Even before Judith began shooting Jaws: The Revenge, he is reported to have held a knife to her throat, threatening to k!ll her should she fail to return home once filming ended.
His wife, Maria, contacted police and reported the threats and physical violence against her in 1986, but when officers arrived at the family home they discovered no physical evidence of abuse and decided not to press charges.
The film was released after her d3ath (Image: undefined)
Jozsef, presumably rattled by the police visit, is said to have quit drinking following the incident, yet the threats towards his wife and daughter continued.
The father callously hid a telegram from his wife telling her that a relative in her native Hungary had passed away, in a desperate attempt to prevent her from leaving the US and taking Judith with her.
Judith herself confided in friends that her father’s violent behaviour showed no signs of abating, claiming he had hurled pots and pans at her, resulting in a nosebleed.
The turmoil at home led the young girl to develop alarming compulsive tendencies, such as pulling out her own eyelashes and removing her cat’s whiskers. It was only when she broke down in tears in front her agent, Ruth Hansen, that her mother took the courageous step of bringing her daughter to a child psychologist.
The psychologist uncovered serious evidence of both physical and emotional abuse and reported her conclusions to child services. Yet another opportunity to rescue Judith was lost when her mother, Maria, told the case worker that she intended to divorce Jozsef and move both herself and her daughter to Panorama City — and the abuse investigation was subsequently dropped.
Despite receiving support from her friends, Maria stalled on the move, gripped by fear of losing her home and all her possessions. It would prove to be a fatal decision.
Judith’s father Jozsef Barsi and mother Maria (Image: undefined)
In the months preceding her devastating murder, Judith is reported to have confided in her friends: “I’m afraid to go home. My daddy is miserable. My daddy is drunk every day and I know he wants to k!ll my mother.”
On July 28, 1988, the young girl’s worst fears were realised when three people were found d3ad in a Los Angeles home in what appeared to be a murder-suicide.
Jozsef had shot Maria in the hallway of their home before entering his daughter’s bedroom and shooting her d3ad as she slept. The depraved father then doused their bodies in petrol before apparently turning the gun on himself in the garage.
Judith Barsi’s star was on the rise (Image: NBC)
Following Judith’s d3ath, Lance Guest, who portrayed her on-screen father in Jaws: The Revenge, said: “She was lovely and a wonderful little girl…adorable.”
Judith and her mother are laid to rest in adjacent plots at the cemetery in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Holywood. Poignantly, engraved upon her headstone is her cherished line from her favourite film project “Yep, Yep, Yep”.
It’s a memorable line from the heart-wrenching All Dogs Go To Heaven, which was released following her devastatingly premature d3ath.
