Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast
This Child Actor Was Murdered - The Judith Barsi story
13 Feb 2025
This is the story of Judith Barsi and her journey into Hollywood stardom.
Full Episode
So this is Judith, and Judith is only five. But she's on her way to being a Hollywood star. However, there's a problem. Her parents don't have a lot of money. Now, her mom is Maria, and her dad is this guy, Yosef. They're on welfare, and Yosef is just a local plumber, and it doesn't help that he's constantly drinking. But one day all that changes.
See, Maria is determined to get Judith into show business. So she spends a lot of time teaching her to be poised and well-spoken. And then one day she takes Judith ice skating at an ice rink in Hollywood. Now this rink is often used as a location to film TV shows and movies. And on that day, there just happens to be a commercial crew there filming.
And allegedly there's a director there and he sees little Judith ice skating and he ends up casting her in a different shoot he's doing. And from there, boom, Judith's career takes off. She gets an agent and she lands her first commercial role for Donald Duck Orange Juice. And after that, she starts working more and more and gets placed in other commercials.
Then she gets her first role in a TV series called Fatal Vision, where she plays a little girl who's unalived by her father. Then she gets cast in Twilight Zone, Punky Brewster, Growing Pains, Cheers. And within a few short years, Judith is pulling in over $100,000 a year from her acting. And Yosef and Maria start to see their bank account slowly climb out of the red.
And eventually they have enough saved to buy their own three bedroom house in a decent neighborhood. This is a dream for them. And everyone is happy for Judith. Except for Yosef. Yosef isn't a TV star, he's just a working man. And his young daughter is making significantly more money than him, making him no longer the breadwinner.
And over time, his drinking starts getting worse and worse, and a mountain of resentment starts building up in him. And of course, he takes this out on his wife and daughter. And he and Maria argue and they fight a lot. And at one point, Jozef threatens to unalive Maria. Like, it gets bad. But Judith, who's around nine at this point, she doesn't let her chaotic family life stop her.
She nails audition after audition. And eventually, she's cast in a little movie you may have heard of called Jaws. Well, not Jaws, but one of the sequels, Jaws Revenge. But whatever, this is huge for her. And it's filming in the Bahamas, which means they'll get to spend a few months there. And predictably, Yosef's drunk ass isn't happy about this.
He gets insecure and worried that Maria and Judith might run off and abandon him. So the night before they leave, he corners Judith. And he pulls out a knife. And he threatens her. If you don't come back to me, I'll unalive you. And the next day, Judith and Maria leave to film Jaws. But Judith is never the same. And over the next few months, her mental health starts to decline.
And it's beginning to show. Like she starts pulling her eyebrows out and her cat's whiskers. But this whole time, she's still acting. She's still landing roles. And she gets cast as one of the lead voices in All Dogs Go to Heaven. Goodbye, Charlie. I love you. And she's cast in what ends up being her favorite role ever.
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