The murder of Rebecca Schaeffer triggered sweeping changes across Hollywood 35 years ago, after it was discovered how the My Sister Sam actress found herself face to face with a stalker-turned-killer in her final moments. The 21-year-old's tragic story has remained a go-to cautionary tale for celebrities since her star-on-the-rise was extinguished on June 18, 1989.
ET is looking back at the infamous true crime story and the shocking details revealed during the trial of Robert John Bardo.
A STAR ON THE RISE
In 1986, Schaeffer was cast on the Pam Dawber-led sitcom, My Sister Sam, following guest star roles on soap operas like Guiding Light and a short-stint working as a model in New York City. At 18 years old, the Oregon-raised Schaeffer had already found the type of success that most aspiring actors only dream of.
"I still have other interests. I still love archaeology and physics. I really love the sciences a lot. I think about going back to school," Schaeffer told ET in 1987 on the set My Sister Sam. “But I love what I'm doing so much… That's what makes me stay here.”
In 1988, the sitcom was canceled after two seasons. Schaeffer was soon cast in Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills, a dark comedy eventually seen by her killer, who would later tell investigators that he became enraged while seeing Schaeffer move away from her innocent image in the more adult-oriented role.
Meanwhile, Schaeffer had found an apartment in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles, where she lived alone and spent time with her boyfriend, Brad Silberling, a UCLA film student who went on to become a successful TV and movie director. During this time, she was also cast in a TV-movie based on the harrowing real-life event, Voyage of Terror: The Achille Lauro Affair, and in screen icon Dyan Cannon’s semi-autobiographical drama and directorial debut, The End of Innocence.
THE DAY OF HER MURDER
In July 1989, Schaeffer was at her LA home awaiting a messenger to deliver the screenplay for The Godfather Part III, ahead of her audition later that day for the role of Michael Corleone’s daughter in the highly-anticipated sequel in Francis Ford Coppola’s gangster saga.
When Schaeffer's apartment was buzzed, it turned out to be 19-year-old Bardo, who began showing her fan mail that she had previously responded to. Schaeffer sent him away and continued waiting for the script that might have led to a life-altering casting for the young actress. As for Bardo, who had traveled seven hours by bus from his home in Arizona, he retreated to a nearby diner.
In a taped confession in 1991, Bardo gave his account of what transpired when he returned to Schaeffer's home an hour later. Bardo said he buzzed the callbox for a second time and Schaeffer appeared frustrated when she saw he had returned. In addition to the fan mail, Bardo was carrying a headshot-type photo of Schaeffer, one .357-caliber handgun and a copy of Catcher in the Rye -- the same book Mark David Chapman infamously had on his person when he murdered John Lennon nine years earlier.
Bardo shot Schaeffer at point-blank range. He claimed she immediately began screaming and cried out, "Why? Why?" Then, he fled and boarded another bus to head back to Tucson.
Schaeffer's neighbors heard the gunshot and her proceeding screams, with multiple people gathering at her side until emergency responders arrived. She was brought to a hospital only a few blocks away, where she was pronounced dead from the gunshot wound, which had pierced her heart.
The manhunt for Bardo was short-lived. He was taken into custody in Tucson the next day, after law enforcement was called to a highway where he had been running in between traffic. At the time, witnesses reported hearing him shout, "I killed Rebecca Schaeffer."
THE TRIAL
It wasn't long before Bardo was extradited back to Los Angeles to begin preliminary hearings for Schaeffer's murder. The prosecutor assigned to the headline-making case was then-Deputy District Attorney of Los Angeles, Marcia Clark, who was five years out from becoming a household name during O.J. Simpson’s murder trial.
Reflecting on Bardo's case with ET in 1997, Clark explained how the two-year court saga was, in retrospect, a training ground for navigating media frenzies. "You go through those stages as a DA where, initially, it’s kind of exciting. Then, it's kind of interesting. Then, it's kind of irritating. Then, you get past that and it's none of the above," she said. "I think by the time I got to Simpson, I got to that stage. Thank goodness."
Bardo would never face a jury of his peers. Instead, his defense opted for a judge-only ruling, which would follow Bardo's confession and a schizophrenia diagnosis -- with Clark arguing the latter didn't account for the premeditated steps leading up to Schaeffer's murder.
During the 1991 trial, Clark also called the head of Warner Bros. studio security to the stand, where it was made public that Bardo had unsuccessfully attempted to contact Schaeffer multiple times at the Burbank backlot while My Sister Sam was in production.
"[Security] had actually seen him come to the studio a few times. Bringing her flowers. A teddy bear. All kinds of things," Clark remembered. "Given what people knew back then, the guards' lack of apprehension was understandable. People just didn't realize that stalkers don't necessarily show how they feel."
While Schaeffer was alerted to one of Bardo's visits, she was never told about his several attempts to speak with her in person.
The manner in which Bardo acquired Schaeffer’s unlisted address was equally troubling to law enforcement and Schaeffer’s loved ones. "He went to a private eye and said, 'I need to find this person,'" explained Clark, who had also called the private detective agency owner to the stand and laid out how they used a common DMV service at the time to ascertain the address. "And it was that easy."
Schaeffer's mother and father, Danna and Benson Schaeffer, along with Silberling, were in court when Bardo was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
THE AFTERMATH
Within a month following Schaeffer's murder, Dawber recruited the My Sister Sam cast to film a public service announcement promoting gun control reform, with her parents standing nearby on the set. "The night is the worst time for me," Danna said in press materials shared when the PSA hit airwaves in 1989. "I can manage during the day, but at night... It's not something you can fix."
As for that DMV service, the Mork & Mindy star also successfully championed a bill that severely limited who could access those types of records. Years earlier, both Dawber and her husband, actor Mark Harmon, had their own disturbing encounters with obsessed fans. "It's pretty silly stuff to think that anybody's personal information can be obtained by any bull story," the future NCIS star told ET in September 1989.
The next year, California passed the country's first anti-stalking legislation, with all 50 states eventually instituting similar laws in the years since. The entertainment industry began taking stalker threats more seriously, too, with Bardo's years-long behavior providing a set of tell-tale warning signs for security professionals in Hollywood.
"Since then, everybody has had their awareness raised," Clark told ET years later. "They understand that stalking is a dangerous crime."
In 2002, Moonlight Mile was one of cinema's most talked about indie darlings. Written and directed by Silberling, the movie was inspired by his trauma bonding experience with Schaeffer's parents in the aftermath of her death. The film starred pre-fame Jake Gyllenhaal and Ellen Pompeo, with Dustin Hoffman and Susan Sarandon portraying surrogate versions of Schaeffer's grief-stricken mother and father on the big screen.
"It's like you have one thing in common. That person's taken out of the equation. And, suddenly, you're a new unit," Silberling told ET as the movie hit theaters. "[Moonlight Mile] is a valentine to the experience and to her family. It's a valentine to her."
21ST CENTURY STALKING
"Rebecca Schaeffer was shot and killed by her stalker 27 years ago. Nothing's changed. #ChristinaGrimmie."
Several tweets like the one above were shared in the days and weeks that followed Christina Grimmie's murder in 2016. The 22-year-old YouTube singing sensation and breakout star of The Voice was gunned down during a fan meet-and-greet in Orlando, Florida. Police later discovered the shooter, Kevin James Loibl, like Bardo, had been harboring an obsessive, years-long infatuation with his future victim.
Without namechecking Rebecca Schaeffer directly, Paris Hilton -- soon after facing multiple stalker threats in quick succession -- opened up to ET in 2011 about what she learned from some of the darkest chapters in Hollywood history. "I'm always very careful now. You never know who's following you. There's so many crazy people out there," Hilton said. "You hear all these stories about murders... It can happen to anyone."
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