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This is a tragic story of a young child star whose career was on the rise when her life was cut far too short at age ten. She died at the hands of her own father after suffering years of abuse.
Judith Eva Barsi was born in Los Angeles, California on June 6, 1978 to Hungarian immigrant parents Jozef “Joe” & Maria. From a young age, it was clear that Judith had a special talent for acting; she was a natural & had her first role at age five when she appeared in the 1984 drama mini series Fatal Vision. In an ironic twist, Judith played a daughter who was murdered by her father. After starring in Fatal VIsion, which served as her breakout role, Judith became highly sought after.
Judith’s real break came three years later when she starred in Jaws: The Revenge as Thea Brady in 1987. The following year she was the voice of Ducky in The Land Before Time & her last role was the voice of Anne-Marie in All Dogs Go to Heaven. Before her death, Judith was also featured in more than fifty commercials as well as several television shows, including Cheers & Growing Pains.
Joe & Maria fled Hungary in 1956 & met at a California restaurant where Maria was working as a waitress. Joe would sit at the bar having drinks where he paid his tab with $100 bills & Maria came to see him as someone who could provide her security. The couple went on to marry on August 29, 1977 & it was the second marriage for both Joe & Maria.
Joe’s childhood in Hungary was described as miserable as he came from a rough upbringing in an industrial area within Hungary where his family fled from. On the other hand, Maria had been raised in a rural university town & each came to the United States in hopes of finding a better life. After settling in Los Angeles, Joe went on to work as a plumber.
When Maria met Joe, he was known among his friends as Arizona Joe because he had spent a lot of time in that state. Despite their shared heritage & their goals of a better life in America, their marriage was eventually extremely tumultuous. The earlier years of Joe & Maria’s marriage were said to have been happier times but the traumas that Joe suffered during childhood morphed him into a very angry, violent man.
Oftentimes when Joe & Maria argued, their friends would overhear Maria call Joe a bastard in reference to his childhood after he claimed to be orphaned. Joe was very quick to anger, especially after drinking & was highly sensitive if anyone commented on his Hungarian accent.
Since settling in Los Angeles, Maria was dazzled by Hollywood & dreamed of one day becoming an actress. After Judith was born in 1978, she shifted her focus to her daughter, determined that Judith one day become a star. Maria worked with Judith to teach her about posture, poise & how to speak. Despite the fact that Maria’s brother was very discouraging about his niece’s chances of becoming a star, Maria was not going to be deterred. Joseph Weldon, Maria’s brother, told her that she would be wasting her time as the chances of Judith becoming a star were one in 10,000.
When 5-year-old Judith was at an ice skating rink one day, she was discovered by a crew who were filming & asked to take part in a commercial. Her first commercial was for Donald Duck orange juice which was the first stepping stone to the start of her career. During a commercial filming for Campbell’s tomato soup, Judith had to eat such an excessive amount of the soup that she was left with an aversion to tomato soup & never ate it again.
Judith was a typical, playful child & in the midst of her acting career, she loved having fun & playing in her best friend’s sprinkler. Her favorite game was Milton Bradley’s Operation.
Casting directors were enchanted by Judith’s smaller than average size despite the fact that she was actually receiving hormone injections at UCLA to help her grow. Because of her petite stature, she was able to play younger characters; when she was ten, she was still playing the role of a 7 or 8-year-old. Ruth Hansen, who was Judith’s agent, described her as a happy, bubbly little girl.
The money that the young star began to make dramatically helped her parent’s financial situation & she made as much as $100,000 a year. This afforded Maria & Joe the ability to purchase a three bedroom home in the Canoga Park neighborhood of Los Angeles at 22100 Michale Street at the western edge of the San Fernando Valley.
Despite the fact that Judith was thriving in her career, behind the scenes darkness was lurking. Rather than being proud of his daughter’s success, Joe was drowning his bitterness & anger in alcohol, often threatening to kill himself, his wife & his daughter. Because Judith had such a sweet, positive disposition, she was initially able to conceal the horrific abuse she was facing at home.
During one occasion, Judith was outside flying a kite that her mom had given her when Joe ripped it from her small hands. When she voiced concern that he might break the kite, he called her a spoiled brat who didn’t know how to share & proceeded to break the kite into pieces.
On three occasions, Joe was arrested for drunk driving. His drinking caused him to lose his job in 1985 & since he was against Maria working outside the home, they faced financial hardships despite the money that Judith was bringing in from acting. Joe was exceptionally controlling of both Maria & Judith & despite the fact that he forbade Maria from working, he berated her in the presence of friends. He criticized her housekeeping skills as he pointed out the clothing & toys left around the house.
A friend of Joe’s, Peter Kivlen, recalled that Joe told him hundreds of times about how he wanted to kill his wife. He was said to alternate his threats, sometimes saying he would kill Maria, other times saying he would kill Judith & himself so that Maria was left behind to suffer. Joe also had a mistress & despite their financial struggles, he was said to have showered with lavish gifts that included a necklace & a ring.
Because Judith was so focused on her acting career, she often missed school & with this, she deeply missed time spent with her friends & classmates. Rather than going to school & playing with friends as a typical child would, Judith kept her head down & hoped she would continue to progress in her career.
By 1986, the family’s financial situation began to improve as Judith’s income grew with her success. However, unhappiness & abuse in the Barsi home continued to escalate to the point that in December 1986 Maria reported her husband’s threats & physical violence to police. She explained that her husband had hit & choked her but chose not to press charges against him. During their visit, police found no signs of physical violence.
After this incident, Joe stopped drinking alcohol, but his threats of violence against his wife & daughter continued regardless. He threatened to burn their house to the ground & cut their throats. On one occasion, a relative back in Hungary passed away, but Joe concealed the telegram that would have informed Maria of the news because he didn’t want Maria & Judith to leave him & travel back to their home country.
When 9-year-old Judith flew to the Bahamas to film Jaws: The Revenge, Joe terrified her after he threatened to slit her throat if she decided not to come home. On top of these verbal threats, he also held a knife to her throat.
Physical violence became a daily occurance in Judith’s life & she was no longer able to conceal what was happening behind a smile as she’d previously managed to do. She confided in her friends that her father caused her nose to bleed after he threw pots & pans at her in a fit of rage. It seemed that with her growing success, the violence & abuse grew as well. Judith told those around her who she trusted that she was afraid to go home & said, My daddy is miserable, My daddy is drunk every day & I know he wants to kill my mother.
As a way to cope with the unrelenting stress of her terrifying home life, Judith began to engage in compulsive behaviors such as plucking her eyelashes out or pulling the whiskers from her cat.
Many times, after Joe would erupt in anger that resulted in physical & emotional abuse, he would often apologize for his actions & reassure Judith of his supposed love for her. His violence would suddenly shift to kindness & he fondly called his daughter Little One & purchased her a pink TV as a token of his sorrow.
As the stress continued to mount, no longer able to bury her fears, Judith broke down in tears in the presence of her agent, Ruth Hansen. The young girl was so hysterical that she couldn’t even speak. Seeing just how distraught Judith was, Ruth insisted that Maria take her daughter to a child psychologist. After Judith spoke with the psychologist, they identified severe emotional & physical abuse & went on to contact Child Protective Services in December 1986. Sadly, the case was dropped when Maria assured the case worker that she was going to be pursuing divorce from Joe. She elaborated that she would be removing Judith from the violent presence of her father & moving her to an apartment in Panorama City, Los Angeles. However, according to Ruth Hansen, Maria complained that because nothing was being done about her situation, she needed to handle it herself.
Friends urged Maria to stay firm in her decision to leave Joe in order to protect her daughter, but Maria was hesitant despite the fact that she had secured an apartment for their escape in May. She utilized their new space as a place to relax during breaks in filming during the day since it was closer to the studios, but they would return home to Joe at night. Maria worried that if she left him, he would find them & kill them by burning the house down. Maria vocalized these fears to her neighbor, Eunice Daly only one week before both her life as well as Judith’s life ended.
Friends also indicated that Maria was reluctant to sever the life she had built over the years with Joe & wanted to stay in the neighborhood to celebrate Judith’s birthday. As Judith’s birthday came & went in June, Maria worried that she would lose her home if they moved to the apartment.
At 8:30 am on July 27, 1988, nearly two months after Judith’s 10th birthday, Eunice was outside watering her plants when she heard a deafening explosion. As soon as she was able to process what she heard, her mind immediately went to Joe as she thought, He’s done it. He’s killed them & set a fire in the house, just like he said he would.
Eunice raced inside her house to contact 911 & sadly, she was correct, Joe had done exactly what he had been threatening to do. It’s possible that he turned his threats into action after he discovered that Maria was planning to move out & divorce him or that Judith had been confiding their personal affairs to a psychologist..
The exact circumstances of what happened within the Barsi home that morning are unknown, but authorities believe that Joe shot & killed his 48-year-old wife while she stood in the hallway & shot 10-year-old Judith as she lay in her bed. Both mother & daughter had been shot in the head. Their bodies were found after the fire fighters managed to extinguish the fire. They located Judith’s body in her canopy bed near the pink television that her father had given her as an apology for previous abuse when he yanked her hair in a fit of rage.
Authorities believed that Joe had been living with his wife & daughter’s deceased bodies since Monday or Tuesday, July 25 or 26, two days before the explosion as Judith hadn’t shown up to an audition for a role with Hannah Barbera that day. On Monday, July 25, Ruth Hansen called the Barsi home after Judith failed to arrive as expected & spoke with Joe who told a bizarre story about a big car that had taken his wife & daughter away to San Diego. On Tuesday night, Joe talked to Ruth a second time & told her that he planned to move out of their home for good, but planned to stay long enough so he could say goodbye to his little girl.
Joe poured gasoline throughout the home as well as on the bodies of his wife & daughter & ignited the fuel before he took his own life with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head inside the garage.
Two of Judith’s movies, The Land Before Time as well as All Dogs go to Heaven were released posthumously & All Dogs go to Heaven was dedicated to Judith in the film where she voiced Anne-Marie, an orphan who had the ability to speak with animals.
The last scene of the film depicted the dog named Charlie who was voiced by Burt Reynolds, saying goodbye to Anne-Marie, voiced by Judith. According to a TikTok that went viral in June 2024, Burt Reynolds hadn’t recorded his last bit of dialogue with Judith until after her murder. When it came time for him to record the dialog, he requested a closed studio which meant it would be only him & the audio engineer present. It took countless times for Reynolds to complete the scene without breaking down since he viewed it as not Charlie saying goodbye to Anne-Marie, but himself saying goodbye to Judith Barsi.
Those that knew & loved Judith & Maria were stunned & shaken by their deaths. Despite the multiple reports of abuse & threats of death, the system had not stepped in to ensure that Judith was removed from her violent household. Judith had also bravely confided in those around her about the abuse she suffered at the hands of her father, but because of reports of insufficient evidence, she remained under the same roof as her violent father.
In September 1988, two months after Judith & Maria’s murders, a member of the watchdog Commission for Children’s Services, Helen Kleinberg, told the Los Angeles Times that part of the problem is that it’s easy to focus on physical abuse because we can see it. She added that they cannot save every child, but was upset by the fact that the case had been closed at Maria’s request as she believed that Judith was the client, not her mother.
Judith & Maria’s deaths sparked outrage & led to calls for reforms in how cases that involve emotional & psychological abuse be handled since they can be more challenging to identify & act upon than those involving physical abuse. The case worker assigned to Judith’s case was said to be overwhelmed with handling a total of 67 cases, 27 more than what is considered to be a full caseload.
Sandra Palmer, a Los Angeles detective, spoke with the Los Angeles Times & said, How do we protect someone from threats? We really, honestly can’t. I can say ‘I’m going to kill you.’ I have the right because we have a free society to say that. I don’t have the right to carry it out.
That same month, in September 1988, Department of Services Director Robert L. Chaffee informed the Board of Supervisors that employee training within his department would be enhanced on the risk domestic violence poses to children.
Before her murder, Maria’s brother saw his sister’s marriage dissolving from bitterness tied to Joe’s drinking & her inability to forgive him even after he stopped. Despite his violence & threats, Joe was said to treasure Judith so those that knew the family tried to understand what would have driven him to murder her. Some question if it was a matter of a final act of possessiveness.
It is believed that Jozsef Barsi is buried in an unmarked grave while Judith & Maria were buried together in adjoining graves at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills. While playing the cheerful dinosaur, Ducky, in The Land Before Time, her signature line was yep, yep, yep! a phrase that is inscribed on her tombstone.
At the time of her death at the tender age of ten, Judith’s star had only just begun to shine. There’s no telling just how far her talent would have taken her & she sadly never got to become the massive star she was destined to be.
References:
- People: How did Judith Barsi die? Inside the harrowing murder of the All Dogs Go to Heaven child star
- Ati: Inside the tragic murder of 10-year-old Judith Barsi, the voice of Ducky in The Land Before Time
- Thought.is: ‘Three dead in apparent murder-suicide:’ Judith Barsi’s tragically short life
- Medium: Jealousy & abuse – the unimaginable murder of Judith Barsi
- Los Angeles Times: A script of fear: Repeated threats by father of child actress carried to tragic end
