Judith Barsi was barely 5 years old when she started acting. But as her career became more successful, she began to experience hell at home because of her father József’s violent behavior.
Judith Barsi He showed from a young age that he had a natural talent for being actress . Her mother, Maria Barsi, attended her acting classes and castings to promote her career.
In the 80s, Bursi was already a rising star: he had obtained several roles in television productions in the United States, where he stood out for his great charisma.
Everything indicated that she would have a promising future, until a macabre event interrupted her and left all of Hollywood in shock. When she was 10 years old, the young actress was murdered by her own father, József Barsi, who also decided to kill his wife and commit suicide.
The story of Judith Barsi
Maria and József Barsi arrived separately in the United States after fleeing the Soviet occupation of their native Hungary in 1956.
The couple met at a restaurant in Los Angeles, California, once frequented by immigrants. She was a waitress, while he, a plumber who was ashamed of his Hungarian accent, went for a drink there. They fell in love instantly, and soon decided to get married.
Although the first years of marriage were happy, Jószef had a complex personality. He had frequent outbursts of anger, further intensified by his alcoholism.
On June 6, 1978, they celebrated the birth of Judith Eva Barsi in Los Angeles. She would become the couple’s only daughter.
From the first years of Judith’s life, Maria began taking her to classes to become a famous actress. It had been her life’s dream, but not having realized it, she decided to put all her hopes in her daughter.
His relatives insisted that it was impossible for him to achieve this. “I told him I wouldn’t waste my time. I told him his chances of success were one in 10,000,” said Joseph Weldon, Maria’s brother.
The mother paid no attention to this and continued to work to make Judith a star. Then, these efforts finally paid off, by pure chance.
One day, Judith was with her mother on a skating rink, when suddenly, a recording crew of a commercial identified her and offered to hire her for a commercial. He was barely 5 years old, but his mother did not hesitate to accept the proposal.
This was the start of the performer’s career. Throughout the 1980s, he appeared in more than 70 commercials and television shows such as Cheers, Growing Pains, Reeming Steele, Punky Brewster and Cagney & Lacey .
He has also provided voices for animated films, including All Dogs Go to Heaven, The Chipmunk Adventure and The Land Before Time .
The role she probably became most known for was as Thea Brody in Shark: Revenge the film directed by Joseph Sargent.
Judith had one trait that set her apart from other actresses: its small size. At age 10, he was just 4 feet 4 inches tall, so he began receiving hormone injections at the University of California, Los Angeles, to stimulate his growth.
According to her agent Ruth Hansen, her short stature helped her acting career because she looked younger than her real age. “When I was 10, I was still playing a 7- or 8-year-old girl,” she explained.
Judith’s success was a great financial help to the family. Her income of $100,000 a year allowed her parents to buy a house in the West Hills area in 1985.
But as the girl began to shine for her roles and her fame increased, a real hell reigned at home. Judith and her mother were subjected to violence by József, who repeatedly expressed his intention to murder them and commit suicide.
In May 1986, Maria decided to file a complaint against her husband for death threats, but also for strangling and beating her. The complaint was ultimately dismissed due to lack of evidence.
As Hansen detailed to the Los Angeles Times, the actress was a “happy, lively girl.” That’s changed since 1987, when filming for Jaws: The Vengeance began.
As the actress was about to leave her city to go to the Bahamas to shoot the film, Jószef was upset by her absence. After that, he took out a knife and threatened her. “If you decide not to come back, I will slit your throat.” he told him, according to witnesses.
Although the girl was away for several months for this work, the man refused to buy a ticket to go see her at one point. After filming was over, she and her mother left for New York, after which Jószef called her to remind her of the knife threat. The actress “was terrified” and burst into tears, according to her agent, so they quickly returned to California.
József tried at all costs to control what his daughter did, but at the same time he seemed envious of what she had achieved in her young age. One day, he broke a kite that his mother had just given him for fun.
The last months were the most difficult. József openly declared to those around him that he wanted to murder his wife, commit suicide or kill Judith and leave Maria alive so that she could “suffer”.
Even though she was just a child, the child star was aware of everything that was happening with her family. “I’m afraid to go home. My father is unhappy. “My father is drunk every day and I know he wants to kill my mother.” he reportedly said while visiting friends. He even pulled out all his eyelashes, according to his agent.
In 1988, the local child welfare department finally discovered the affair. Maria promised them that she had a “plan” to get out of her situation, which involved renting an apartment in the Panorama City neighborhood of Los Angeles.
However, according to the local police, Maria went to live in the apartment, but did not take Judith with her. In addition, the separation from József was not yet final, so he returned home from time to time.
“She really loved her home and the things that Judith’s career had brought her,” a neighbor of the woman said.
On July 25, 1988, Judith had to attend a work meeting with a producer. It never happened.
That night, the man waited until Judith and Maria fell asleep and shot them. He then went to the garage and killed himself. A few days later, when police entered the property, they discovered the actress’s body in her bed, next to a television that her father had given her as an apology for a tantrum she had had.
The remains of Judith and her mother now rest in Forest Lawn Memorial Park, a cemetery in Los Angeles.
Source: Latercera
I am David Jack and I have been working in the news industry for over 10 years. As an experienced journalist, I specialize in covering sports news with a focus on golf. My articles have been published by some of the most respected publications in the world including The New York Times and Sports Illustrated.
