Rebecca Schaeffer Movies
American actress Rebecca Schaeffer lived out one of Hollywood's most tragic stories. Schaeffer experienced a brief and stunning rise to acclaim before she was brutally murdered at the tender age of 21.Born in Portland, Oregon in late 1967, the delicately beautiful Schaeffer established herself as a much-sought-after model on the international circuit by the age of 14, then gained a role (at 16, in 1984) on the perennial American soap opera One Life to Live. She made a rather prestigious feature film debut at 18 years old, when cast as a Communist's daughter in Woody Allen's period piece Radio Days (1987). She then landed a coveted lead role as teenager Patti Russell, opposite Pam Dawber and David McNaughton, on the sitcom My Sister Sam, from 1986-1988. Schaeffer also played a small role in Paul Bartel's Scenes From the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills with Jacqueline Bisset and Ed Begley Jr.. She portrayed a neglected 18-year-old in The End of Innocence with Dyan Cannon, and landed a bit part in the highly rated television feature Voyage of Terror: The Achille Lauro Affair.
Though Schaeffer, by all accounts, was well on her way to a successful acting career, she wouldn't live to see the 1990 release of The End of Innocence. In 1987, a psychotic stalker who had become obsessed with Schaeffer (and was apparently upset about being denied access to a movie set where she worked) knocked on the unsuspecting actress's door and shot her several times. He was later tried and convicted by famed prosecutor Marcia Clark. Though Schaeffer's death was senseless and unbearably sad, her loved ones did gain a small comfort in knowing her murder resulted in the establishment of laws designed to protect the privacy of celebrities. At the time of her death, Schaeffer was engaged to aspiring director Brad Silberling, who then wrote a movie script with a thinly-disguised fictionalization of his own experiences following that tragedy. It was produced, years later, as the drama Moonlight Mile (2002). ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi
Woody Allen's gentle and nostalgic tribute to the glory days of radio and coming-of-age during World War II plays like Fellini's Amarcord filtered through Neil Simon. The nominal star is Seth Green as Joe, a teenage Jewish boy, growing up with a house full of relatives in Brooklyn. Allen cuts between Joe's working class neighborhood of Rockaway Beach, Queens, and the glittery and glamorous world of radio in Manhattan. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Starring:
- Mia Farrow, Seth Green, (more)
- 1988
- PG
Out of Time is a patchwork of notions lifted from such earlier sources as Time After Time, Back to the Future, The Terminator, and the 1961 Twilight Zone episode "Back There." Bruce Abbott plays a dedicated law enforcement officer from the year 2088 who is in pursuit of time-travelling lawbreaker Adam Ant. Hurtling back to 1988, Abbott meets his own great-grandfather (Bill Maher), a gormless rookie cop. Armed with the knowledge that great-grandpa will eventually become a world-renowned criminologist, Abbott teams up with his youthful forebear. The title Out of Time became prophetic when this TV pilot film failed to secure a weekly network slot for the 1988-89 season. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bruce Abbott, Adam Ant, (more)
- 1989
- R
In this satirical skewering of the lifestyles of the rich and famous, a divorced Beverly Hills gal ends up on the doorstep of her next-door neighbor, an out-of-work TV sitcom actress who happens to have a socially eclectic group of friends and a deceased husband who can't accept the fact that he is dead. The topic of conversation is sex, and before long, a wager between servants sets the sexual escapades into action. ~ Rovi
- Starring:
- Jacqueline Bisset, Ray Sharkey, (more)
- 1990
This made-for-television film Voyage of Terror: The Achille Lauro Affair chronicles the true story of the 1985 hijacking of an Italian cruise ship by a group of Palestinians. Voyage of Terror is primarily told through the viewpoint of Leon and Marilyn Klinghoffer (Burt Lancaster and Eva Marie Saint), an elderly couple who happen to be on board during the hijacking, yet the film also follows the ordeals of other hostages and the terrorists themselves, who are led by Joseph Nasser in a compelling performance. Voyage of Terror was shot on the actual Achille Lauro cruise ship and was originally aired as a two-part mini-series. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi
- 1990
- R
Actress Dyan Cannon, whose 1976 directorial debut Number One was nominated for a "best short subject" Academy Award, moves on to feature-length projects with The End of Innocence. In addition to directing, Ms. Cannon wrote the screenplay and played a leading role in this story of a young girl spiritually torn apart by forces beyond her control. Rebecca Schaeffer plays Stephanie Lewis, unwanted and ignored by her eternally squabbling parents. Mom and Dad do further damage to Stephanie's battered psyche by giving her mixed messages concerning sex and religion. The girl's self-esteem dwindles to microscopic proportions thanks to a series of no-good boyfriends. Suffering a nervous breakdown, she is placed in an asylum, where for the first time she treated as a human being rather than a nuisance by compassionate psychiatrist John Heard. Completed in the late 1980s, End of Innocence was released in 1990, one year after the death of star Rebecca Schaeffer. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Dyan Cannon, John Heard, (more)
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