- Born
- Died
- Birth nameRebecca Lucile Schaeffer
- Height5′ 7″ (1.70 m)
- Rebecca 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.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Minerva Breanne Meybridge
- ParentsBenson Schaeffer
- She was scheduled to audition for Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather Part III (1990) the morning she was murdered.
- Her stalking/murder shed light on the horrors that celebrities often face with deranged fans turned stalkers. Since her stalker was able to find out so much personal information about her, including her home address from DMV records, laws have been established to protect celebrities' private information.
- Her murder helped lead to the classification of stalking as a felony in California. The law has since provided recourse for such celebrities as Madonna, Jeri Ryan and David Letterman.
- The movie Moonlight Mile (2002), written and directed by Brad Silberling, has taken the story from his own experiences as her former boyfriend.
- Lived with co-star Pam Dawber and Dawber's actor husband Mark Harmon in Los Angeles after landing the role of Patti Russell on My Sister Sam (1986).
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