Mourning Aaliyah

Then came her acting breakthrough in 2000's ''Romeo Must Die'' opposite Jet Li, and movie offers began flooding in. This spring, Aaliyah wrapped her role as 6,000- year-old vampire Akasha in the film version of Anne Rice's ''Queen of the Damned,'' due in February.

Despite being an acting neophyte, Aaliyah impressed ''Queen'' director Michael Rymer with her professionalism on the wintry shoot in Melbourne, Australia. ''She had to wear very painful contacts and teeth that were hard to speak through. She had these tiny little costumes. This girl never got tired or grumpy,'' says Rymer, who adds that he knew nothing about her as a singer before casting her.

Aaliyah's potential as a film star was growing. Cast as a heroine named Zee in the two planned sequels to the Wachowski brothers' sci-fi hit ''The Matrix,'' she had completed preproduction in L.A. this summer, though no actual footage of her had been shot. A Warner Bros. spokeswoman says the studio has not decided ''when or if'' they'll recast the role. (The fate of the ''Rock the Boat'' video remains unclear, too.)

Meanwhile, at Tower Records' flagship store on L.A.'s Sunset Strip, the giant billboard painting of her new album cover -- which has been up since the disc was released -- has become a makeshift shrine, emblazoned with condolence messages from fans. ''Sales [of the album] are picking up,'' says Tower exec Bob Feterl. ''There's a lot of sentiment for her.'' MTV is planning a tribute at the Sept. 6 Video Music Awards, for which Aaliyah had been scheduled to present.

Even before her death, she found another fan in Rymer. ''It's easy to lionize somebody now that they're gone,'' he says, ''but I'd go home every day and say to my wife, 'That girl is amazing. She's the sweetest person I ever met. She's like a little angel.'''

(Additional reporting by Clarissa Cruz, Gillian Flynn, Allison Hope Weiner, and Chris Willman)