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Rebecca Lucile Schaeffer (November 6, 1967 – July 18, 1989) was an American actress best known for her role in the sitcom My Sister Sam. Schaeffer was stalked and then murdered by Robert John Bardo, prompting the passage of anti-stalking laws in California. Schaeffer, the only child of a child psychologist and a writer, was raised in Portland, Oregon where she attended Lincoln High School and aspired to be a rabbi. As a teen, she began modeling and appeared in television commercials and as an extra in a television film. She then moved to New York to pursue acting. After landing the cover... MORE

Rebecca Lucile Schaeffer (November 6, 1967 – July 18, 1989) was an American actress best known for her role in the sitcom My Sister Sam. Schaeffer was stalked and then murdered by Robert John Bardo, prompting the passage of anti-stalking laws in California. Schaeffer, the only child of a child psychologist and a writer, was raised in Portland, Oregon where she attended Lincoln High School and aspired to be a rabbi. As a teen, she began modeling and appeared in television commercials and as an extra in a television film. She then moved to New York to pursue acting. After landing the cover of Seventeen magazine, she tested successfully for the part of Patti Russell on the CBS sitcom My Sister Sam. After the series ended in 1988, Schaeffer went on to appear in Radio Days (although much of her performance was deleted), Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills, The End of Innocence and the television film Out of Time. She also served as a spokesperson for the children's charity Thursday's Child. On July 18, 1989, Schaeffer was murdered by Robert John Bardo, an obsessed fan who had been stalking her for three years. Bardo had become fixated on Schaeffer after his previous LESS