The terrible story of Judith Barsi: she played her future in a movie (10 photos + 1 video)

In the summer of 1978, baby Judith was born into a family of Hungarian emigrants. All parents consider their children beautiful, but the girl had a truly memorable appearance - people paid attention to her.





Since her parents, plumber Joseph Barsi and housewife Maria Barsi, lived in Los Angeles at that moment, it would be strange not to try her hand at cinema. Moreover, Judith was very smart and from early childhood spoke fluently in two languages: Hungarian and English.

The parents of the future actress were both from not the most prosperous families. Mary grew up in the family of a terrible tyrant, and Joseph was generally an orphan.



Joseph and Mary

Maria noted that her daughter is charming and artistic. Already at the age of three, her mother went with her to a talent competition, and the jury really liked the girl. After the competition, Judith received her first contract - an advertisement for Lay's chips.

Since 1984, Judith began to be invited to film shoots. Her first work, in the same year, was the film “Fatal Vision,” where her co-stars were Oscar-winning stars. In the story, she played the role of one of the daughters killed by her father.

After the premiere, offers rained down on the girl from all sides - she played more than ten roles in advertising, including McDonald's and Disney, and worked in TV series and films. Her most famous works were the voice acting of the cartoons “The Land Before Time” and “All Dogs Go to Heaven.”



Her peculiarity played into Judith's hands - she looked younger, and her voice was like that of a three-year-old. She could play very young children, but at the same time, it was much easier to work with her, for which the little actress was greatly appreciated by directors and producers. Plus, she quickly grasped the basics of acting and adopted the experience of her senior partners on the set.

Despite this success, Judith's parents were still concerned about Judith's slow growth and injected her with growth hormone until the producers convinced them to stop doing it. Like, a six-year-old girl will then lose all her success and become an ordinary child. Oh those producers...

At 10 years old, Judith was only 112 cm tall.



The actress's fees grew in proportion to her success. The parents stopped working because their daughter's fees provided for their life. They bought a house in a good area, and Maria devoted herself to working with Judith, because she had to be taken to castings, to filming, to make sure that she studied and rested properly.

But Joseph couldn't cope. In 1985, depressed by Judith's success, he began to drink. He was depressed by the fact that he was supported by a little girl, and while Maria and Judith traveled all day on business, he sat at home and was frustrated. He became useless. More precisely, he considered himself one.

His anger, mixed with fear, turned into manic thoughts: Joe began to constantly think that his daughter would simply not return one day after another day of filming. After moving to a new house, he immediately surrounded it with a fence with spikes that could only be opened from the inside.



Joseph Barsi

And as happens with insecure people depressed by alcohol, the father decided that Judith was to blame for everything. Joe simply hated his own daughter. One day, when Maria decided to throw a party at her house, Judith, of course, was the center of attention. This infuriated Joe, and he called his daughter into the kitchen, where he yelled at her, calling her a “damn little brat,” and then pushed her forcefully. Judith fell, but was so scared that she didn’t tell anyone about it.

By the way, it is worth noting that this was Joe’s second marriage to Maria. When he lived in France, he married Clara there, also a native of Hungary. They had two children in their marriage and the man worked hard to provide for his family. Almost every evening he got drunk, after which he beat not only his wife, but also his eldest son. As a result, Clara took the children and left her husband. He tried several times to return her, but the woman flatly refused.



And so, years passed. And everything began to repeat itself. Joseph began drinking and beating his second wife. Only this time he didn’t have to strain himself so that his family had something to eat and wear - Judith worked for him. Maria in 1986she went to the police, where she said that her husband was not just beating her - he was threatening to kill her. The police did not proceed with the case, not seeing any signs of beatings on Maria’s body.

In 1987, the girl was supposed to go to the Bahamas to film Jaws. On the night of his wife and daughter’s departure, Joseph burst into Judith’s room, put a knife to her throat and said that if they decided not to return home, he would find them and kill them. Joe's paranoia was getting worse.



Of course, Judith’s condition was affected by everything that happened at home. At work, she began to break down and had hysterics. Before, Judith didn’t have to ask her to laugh, the actress was always cheerful and approachable - now it was very difficult to force her to squeeze out even a smile.

When the girl came to audition for a role in the cartoon “All Dogs Go to Heaven,” the producer, unable to bear it, decided to talk to Judith. The little girl couldn’t stand it and burst into tears, telling everything that her father was doing. The producer immediately called a psychologist and after a conversation with a specialist, it became clear that Judith had been in an extremely stressful state for a long time. Maria was strongly advised to contact child protective services.



At first Maria did so, but then decided to refuse. She knew that her husband’s threats were not empty words and was sure that if the girl was sent into care and she did not return home, Joseph would find them and finish them off. As I have promised. Joe constantly threatened Maria that if they ran away, he would first burn the house down (he showed his wife cans of gasoline), and then his only goal in life would be to kill his wife and daughter. Ex-colleague Joe Peter admitted later that he heard hundreds of times from him that he wanted to kill his wife. When Peter asked what would happen to Judith in this case, he replied: “I’ll kill her too.”



All her friends advised her to grab the child and run, but Maria herself was in such a hunted state that she did not understand what to do. She was terrified of her husband.

All she could do was rent an apartment away from home, where Judith could spend time with her and play with friends. This was a relatively safe zone for them. But at night they had to return to the house, to Joe.

On July 25, 1988, the actress met with her friends and one of them invited everyone to a sleepover. Judith really wanted to spend time in the company, but not return home - this was a death sentence not only for her, but also for her mother.



The police carry out the bodies of the dead

At approximately 1 a.m., Joseph walked into his sleeping daughter's bedroom and shot her in the head. Maria, waking up from the sound of a shot, rushed to Judith's room. Joe shot her too.

He spent the next two days at home with the bodies, listening to the sound of his phone ringing off the hook. The killer picked up the phone only once - Agent Judith heard that he had to say goodbye to his family.

On July 27, Joe doused the bodies of Maria and Judith with gasoline and set them on fire. He himself headed to the garage, where he shot himself in the forehead.

On August 9, 1988, mother and daughter were buried in Hollywood. No one knows where Joe was buried.

In 1989, the cartoon "All Dogs Go to Heaven" was released. Judith Barsi voiced an orphan who dreamed of finding loving and caring parents.