Shauna was a superstar because of her girl next door beauty, not cuz she set trends, and in her final moments she became what noone would have expected: the first of many porn stars to kill themselves. Her short lived, life of erotica came to an end on March 21, 1984, when she put a .22 rifle to her head and pulled the trigger.
The goreous Shauna Grant, formerly known as Colleen Applegate, was dead at 20 years old.
Shauna suicice sent shock throughut the industry at a time when it was already being scrutinized. A lot of people blamed the tragedy on the industry. Shauna's death was the effect of cocaine abuse, failed ralationships, and depression.
Shauna Grant was born Colleen Applegate in Bellflower, California. When she was 9 her father got a job for the phone company, so they moved to Farmington, Minnesota, a small village of 3,500 that lies thirty miles south of Minneapolis. Very quickly she grew to hate the small town atmosphere, she had bigger dreams.
She attended Farmington High School and got into Cheerleading, but her main click was her boyfriend Mike Marcell, and his partying friends. After graduating in 1981 she got a job working at her fathers phone copany, but thats not what fate had in store for Shauna. After a failed attemp at pverdosing on sinus pills her boyfriend packed up his El Camino and headed to Hollywood to make her a star.
When they got to LA, they found that jobs were few and far between. After searching for a couple weeks she answered an ad for 'figure modeling'. Shauna definately had the body for it, so a photo shoot was set up. Even though she wasn't very comfortable taking her clothes off and posing for a stranger, she needed money at the same time, so she dealt with it.
A star was born overnight.
Shauna fresh, innocent features captivated anyone who laid eyes on her, and photo shoots came raining down. After being in LA for only two months she had booked just about every major modeling magazine and her relationship was over.
In just 6 months she was the most photographed woman in magazines. She was making great money, sometimes 2000$ a day. Not after long she was dipping into porn. As her wallet grew fatter, so did her appetite for blow.
Her work in adult loops ended another relationship for her so she decided to date someone in the industry, film producer Bobby Hollander. Bobby wasted no time getting Shauna into full-on hardcore.
Shauna was an instant favorite. Her first feature, "Paper Dolls," led to more movies, and Shauna was the star she always wanted to be. Her asking 'day rate' jumped dramatically and erased all her inhibitions about getting fucked on camera. Cocaine, limo's, and top notch hotels became her new best friend.
Once again, her relationship failed with Bobby and she started dating her coke dealer Jake Erlich which took her out of porn. They moved to Palm Springs and Shauna started working as a manager at Pelle, a leather store that her coke dealing boyfriend owned. She became a little more domesticated and started talking to her family again. Everything was going good until her boyfriend got arrested for drugs.
Shauna lost her boyfriend and his money, she was screwed. She had no money, so she went to SanFran to shoot another film. She started using again and was starting to get paranoid people were watching and stalking her. She was seen at the 1984 Erotic Film Awards, where she was nominated 3 times....noone saw her alive again.
On March 21st Shauna locked her bedroom door and got out her ex's .22 rifle. She laid down, put the gun to her head, and pulled the trigger. The bullet traveling right through her head and lodged itself into the wall behind her.
A friend of hers discovered her body. Shauna was taken to Desert Hospital, where their efforts were put to a hault after 2 days of fighting. It was almost 2 years to the date that Shauna had moved away from rural Farmington, Minnesota for the 'big time'.
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