It's been 15 years....

[MandieR1980]

Originally posted by Miss Vicki
She was also on "One Life to Live" in 1985.

I just did a search for her E! True Hollywood Story...and it says it aired in 1991?

Anyway...I was just a month shy of turning 4 when she was murdered...so I don't remember it too well. But I think it's a tragedy...Yep, she was way too young and had her whole life ahead of her.

I believe it was the first E! True Hollywood Story that ever aired. I was 9 when it happened and I don't remember it.

[dawsongirl]

Originally posted by MandieR1980
She was an actress on an 80's sitcom called "My Sister Sam" and she did some movies. she started getting alot of sick letters from Robert Bardo and he eventually came to see her at her apartment and shot her dead. She was 21

He was found guiltyt of murder and he's in prison for life no parole.

I first started getting interested in this after seeing her E! True Hollywood Story. I never saw "My Sister Sam" but I really want to now.

She was only 21? That's awful.


What is with these sickos? I lve you so much I want you dead? That makes absolutely no sense.

[Mr. Television]

http://www.poeforward.com/mrperfumer.../schaeffer.htm

[TheGreatPretender]

Originally posted by Jen1989
My understanding is that she was an actress who had an obessed fan who stalked and killed her.

whoever that fan was is a sick person.

[G-Force Glockstar]

Originally posted by skyhigh25789
whoever that fan was is a sick person.

Yeah, I agree!

[TMC]

Rebecca Schaeffer began modeling at the age of 16, going off to New York on her own to begin her career. Four months later, she found herself in Japan, modeling. Eventually, she landed a co-starring role on My Sister Sam (1986), for which she is now best known. In 1989 she also became a spokesperson for Thursday's Child, a charity for at-risk teens.

In April of that same year, having missed a signing due to filming, she reluctantly went to a girls' shelter to sign autographs. "No one will recognize me", she insisted, "or want my autograph," but as it turned out all of them did. In fact, the girls were so in awe that they invited her to the Renaissance Fair in May; Rebecca accepted.

Only two months later, she lay dead on the pavement in front of her new apartment in West Hollywood, having been shot to death by a paranoid schizophrenic fan around her age, Robert John Bardo, who came to her apartment asking for an autograph. She obliged, even though she was busy rehearsing in her apartment for the most important role of her short career. He later said he felt rejected by her because she didn't spend more time with him at her door.

He returned a few minutes later, pressed the buzzer, and when she again opened the door for him, he shot her once in the chest, placing the bullet directly into her heart. Rebecca screamed out, "Why?" then fell backward in the doorway, and was pronounced dead at Cedars-Sinai hospital within minutes of arriving there by ambulance after the shooting.

The killer fled to Tucson, AZ, and the next morning the previously diagnosed "psychiatric patient" was found walking blindly, appearing to be hoping to be hit and killed by a car or truck on a major highway. He was subsequently arrested, transferred back to Los Angeles, and plea-bargained for a life sentence without the possibility of parole, with a then-young assistant district attorney named Marcia Clark, who later became famous for her failed attempt to convict O.J. Simpson of murder. There was a trial by Judge that lasted a month, because the obsessed fan changed his mind about the plea bargain agreement, and pleaded an 'insanity defense'. He was found guilty, and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

She was buried at Ahavai Sholom Cemetery in Portland.

[TMC]

The murder of Rebecca Schaeffer triggered sweeping changes across Hollywood in 1989, after it was discovered how the 21-year-old 'My Sister Sam' actress found herself face to face with a stalker-turned-killer in her final moments. ET looks back at the infamous true crime story and the shocking details revealed during the trial of Robert Bardo, sharing never-before-seen interviews and uncovering rare footage captured inside the courtroom. Before Marcia Clark became a household name from O.J. Simpson's legal saga, Los Angeles County's former Deputy District Attorney was the prosecutor assigned to oversee justice for Schaeffer's murder. As she explained to ET, the ensuing police investigation revealed how Bardo obtained Schaeffer's unlisted address through the DMV, a service that quickly became restricted thanks in part to the lobbying efforts of her sitcom co-star, Pam Dawber. In the wake of Schaeffer’s death, California passed the first anti-stalking legislation that’s now present in all 50 states. In 2016, YouTube singer Christina Grimmie's murder by an obsessed fan drew multiple parallels to the aftermath of Schaeffer's death, with both of their stories raising awareness of the dangers that come with living in the public eye.

[TMC]

Rebecca Schaeffer Was Preparing to Audition for Francis Ford Coppola When an Obsessed Fan Killed Her. Inside the Chilling Crime

Rebecca Schaeffer’s murder changed how stalking was prosecuted in the state of California.