Remembering Rebecca Schaeffer

Rebecca Schaeffer

On July 18, 1989, 21-year-old actress Rebecca Schaeffer was shot and killed at her Los Angeles home by Robert John Bardo, a man who had been stalking her for three years. Schaeffer, who had worked as a teen model and had a short stint on the soap opera One Life To Live, became famous after starring in the sitcom My Sister Sam. When the show was canceled in 1988, Schaeffer decided that it was time to break into films and she earned a supporting role in the dark comedy Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills. Bardo, who had been sending letters to Schaeffer and had once tried to enter the set of My Sister Sam with a knife, saw the movie and was angered by a scene showing Schaeffer in bed with a man. After learning that actress Theresa Saldana had been murdered by her stalker after he had hired private investigators to track her down, Bardo decided to hire his own investigator who obtained Schaeffer's home address from the California Department of Motor Vehicles. He showed up at her house on under the pretense of wanting an autograph and after complying with his request, Schaeffer asked him to leave. He did but returned shortly after and when Schaeffer answered the door he shot her dead.

After his arrest, the next day in Tucson, Arizona, Robert John Bardo was prosecuted by Marcia Clark and in 1991 he was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. In 1994, California passed the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act, which prevented the Department of Motor Vehicles from releasing private addresses. Schaeffer's My Sister Sam co-stars Pam Dawber, Joel Brooks, David Naughton, and Jenny O'Hara reunited to film a PSA for the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence in her honor. Brad Silberling, who had been dating Schaeffer at the time of her death, wrote and directed Moonlight Mile, a 2002 film inspired by their relationship.

In 2007, Robert John Bardo was stabbed eleven times by a fellow inmate but survived the attack. He is still serving his life sentence at the Avenal State Prison in Avenal, California.

Related Reading:

How the Murder of Starlet Rebecca Schaeffer by Her Stalker 'Changed Hollywood'

Actress' Murder Led to Tougher Anti-Stalking Laws

Mother of murdered actress Rebecca Schaeffer pours her grief into one-woman show at Hollywood Fringe Festival


Why actress Rebecca Schaeffer's 1989 murder was Hollywood's wake-up call






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