Additional Coverage:
Rebecca Schaeffer was a rising star whose promising career was tragically cut short by a fatal encounter with a stalker.
Her breakthrough came in 1984 when she landed the role of Annie Barnes on ABC’s soap opera One Life to Live. Her talent quickly garnered attention, and within six months, she secured a leading part in the sitcom My Sister Sam, which ran for three years. Schaeffer’s growing fame, however, attracted a dangerous obsession.
Robert John Bardo, a 17-year-old from Arizona, became fixated on Schaeffer after sending her letters. Unaware of the threat, she even responded to one of his fan mails.
In 1987, Bardo traveled to Los Angeles, attempting to approach her on the set of My Sister Sam at Warner Bros. Studios.
Security intervened, but this did not deter him.
A month later, Bardo returned, this time armed with a knife. His obsession intensified after watching Schaeffer’s appearance in the film Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills, where she shared an intimate scene with co-star Ray Sharkey. Enraged, Bardo believed she needed to be punished.
Following the example of a previous stalker, Arthur Richard Jackson, Bardo paid a private investigation firm to obtain Schaeffer’s home address. On July 18, 1989, he arrived at her West Hollywood residence carrying a Ruger GP100 .357 revolver and fatally shot the 21-year-old actress at her front door.
Neighbors responded quickly, finding Schaeffer asking “Why?” as she lay wounded. She was rushed to the hospital but was pronounced dead within 30 minutes of arrival.
Bardo was arrested and confessed to the murder. In 1991, he was convicted of first-degree aggravated murder and sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. His crime prompted changes in privacy laws, specifically restricting the distribution of personal information through the DMV.
Schaeffer’s death also led to the passage of the nation’s first anti-stalking laws in 1990. In the wake of their daughter’s murder, her parents, Benson and Danna Schaeffer, became outspoken advocates for gun control and founded the organization Oregonians Against Gun Violence in 1991, aiming to prevent similar tragedies.