{"id":10659,"date":"2025-06-17T03:04:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-17T03:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=10659"},"modified":"2025-06-17T03:04:00","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T03:04:00","slug":"lilo-stitch-actor-david-hekili-kenui-bell-dies-weeks-after-film-release","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=10659","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Lilo &amp; Stitch&#8217; actor David Hekili Kenui Bell dies weeks after film release"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>David Hekili Kenui Bell, a Hawaiian actor known for his role in Disney\u2019s live-action Lilo &amp; Stitch remake, has died just weeks after the film\u2019s release.<\/p>\n<p>His sister, Jalene Kanani Bell, confirmed the news in a Facebook post on Sunday. No cause of death was provided.<\/p>\n<p>Bell played the role of \u201cBig Hawaiian Dude\u201d in Lilo &amp; Stitch, which premiered in May 2025. According to his sister, Bell had bought opening night tickets for his family in Kapolei just two weeks before his passing.<\/p>\n<p>Bell also appeared in several Hawaii-based TV series, including Magnum P.I. and Hawaii Five-0. He played Manu Salani in two episodes of Magnum P.I. between 2018 and 2019 and portrayed Isaac in a 2014 episode of Hawaii Five-0, as noted on his IMDb page.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond acting, Bell was known in the community for his voice work over the public address system at Kona Airport and as a brand ambassador for Kona Brewing Company.<\/p>\n<p>His agent, Lashauna Downie, told TMZ she learned about his death through social media and described Bell as a &#8220;gentle giant&#8221; who embodied the spirit of aloha.<\/p>\n<p>Jalene Bell highlighted his linguistic talents, noting his fluency in English, Hawaiian, and Hawaiian Pidgin. She also shared a personal memory of meeting Bell for the first time on her high school graduation day, calling him \u201ca diamond in the rough\u201d and a source of unconditional love.<\/p>\n<p>Bell\u2019s passing marks a tragic loss for both the Hawaiian community and fans of Disney\u2019s beloved remake.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>David Hekili Kenui Bell, a Hawaiian actor known for his role in Disney\u2019s live-action Lilo &amp; Stitch remake, has died just weeks after the film\u2019s release. His sister, Jalene Kanani Bell, confirmed the news in a Facebook post on Sunday. No cause of death was provided. Bell played the role of \u201cBig Hawaiian Dude\u201d in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10659\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}