Judith was a young American actress in the 1980s, possibly best known for voicing Ducky in The Land Before Time. Sadly, as her star was brightening, her private life was darkening.
Judith was born on 6th June 1978 in Los Angeles, an only child (although she had siblings on her father’s side) to Jozsef ‘Joe’ Barsi and Maria Barsi, both Hungarian immigrants. At just five years old, she started her acting career, appearing in over 70 adverts and sitcoms such as Cheers and The Twilight Zone. She starred in movies including Jaws: The Revenge (1987) and voiced Anne Marie in All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989).
Judith had a highly successful career, but her home life was atrocious. Her father was a domineering, violent alcoholic who was inexplicably jealous of Judith’s career and the attention she attracted. He created an atmosphere of fear, threatening to kill his wife numerous times and even telling her he would kill Judith to punish Maria. Peter Kivlen, a friend of Joe’s, later said, ‘I’d try to calm him down. I’d tell him, ‘If you kill her, what will happen to your little one?’ Joe replied, ‘I gotta kill her too’.’
Kivlen told how Joe liked to brag in front of his friends about his violence, even going as far as to say he had served time in New York for killing a man in a fight. This was a lie, with the only offences on his criminal record being for drunk driving.
On one occasion, Joe took a kite from Judith. When she complained that he might break it, he called her a ‘spoiled brat’ and deliberately smashed it out of spite.
In 1986, Maria reported her husband to the police, telling them about the mental and physical abuse he subjected her and their daughter to. The police did nothing.
When Judith was preparing to fly to the Bahamas to start filming Jaws: The Revenge, Joe held a knife to her throat and threatened her, saying,’ If you decide not to come back, I will cut your throat.’
Unsurprisingly, young Judith was terrified. She had taken to pulling out her eyelashes and told friends, ‘My daddy is drunk every day, and I know he wants to kill my mother’.
Ruth Hanse was Judith’s agent, and she noticed a difference in the child’s behaviour, saying she was usually a ‘bubbly, happy little girl’. Ruth insisted that Maria take Judith to a child psychologist; after seeing Judith, the psychologist rang and said, ‘Ruth, it is extreme verbal, mental, and emotional problems with this child, and I have to report it to Children’s Services.’
The Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services, like the police, did nothing to help Judith and Maria.
At one point, Maria did find a flat for her and Judith, but she was too scared to leave her husband, telling a neighbour, ‘I can’t because he’ll come after us, and he’s threatened to burn the house down’.
On what was later believed to be the 25th of July 1988, the violence and the threats came to a head: Joe shot Judith in the head, killing her instantly while she was asleep. Maria, hearing the noise, ran towards her daughter, but she too was fatally shot. Judith was just ten years old.
At 8.30 am on 27th July, the neighbours heard an explosion. Joe had covered the bodies of his wife and daughter in gasoline and set fire to them. He then retreated to the garage, where he killed himself before the fire took over. A neighbour said, ‘My first thought, as I ran in to call 911, was, ‘He’s done it. He’s killed them and set a fire in the house, just like he said he would’.’
A funeral was held for Judith and Maria on 9th August. They are buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills in California. At first, Judith didn’t have a headstone, but in 2004, one was placed, the epitaph reading ‘Our Concrete Angel. Yep, Yep, Yep’, a reference to her character's catchphrase in The Land Before Time.
The film All Dogs Go to Heaven premiered after her death, and the last song, Love Survives, was dedicated to Judith. A spokeswoman for Judith’s acting agency said, ‘She was very successful, with every door open to her. There’s no telling how far she would have gone.’
Judith and Maria were seriously let down by the very people who were supposed to protect them. Helen Kleinburg, a member of the Watchdog Commission for Children’s Services, said, ‘It is frightening because it appears that people on the outside took the right steps, and we didn’t manage it.’ Despite the awful tragedy, Judith’s memory lives on in her beloved films, and I sincerely hope she is at peace. Thanks for reading; take care of yourselves, and I will see you next time.
Hi! I spend a lot of time writing for the website, and I basically exist on caffeine and anxiety - if anybody would like to encourage this habit, please feel free to buy me a coffee!
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