Many people might not recognize the name, Phyllis Peterson. Her friends and family called her Mandy. She was a pretty blonde with an amazing smile that went by the name Amanda Peterson.
She was born in 1971 in Greeley, Colorado the youngest of three children. She began acting as a child and can be seen dancing at the age of eight as an extra in the film Annie. She went on to have roles in Silver Spoons and Father Murphy. She appeared in over fifty TV commercials and by 1985 was starring opposite Ethan Hawke and River Phoenix in the film Explorers.
At the age of 15, she was cast in a role opposite Patrick Dempsey for the film Boy Rents Girl. The name was changed to Can’t Buy Me Love after the rights were secured to the Beatles song. The movie became a huge success in the summer of 1987 and Amanda Peterson shot to fame. The movie resonated with many teenagers. It was a classic love story for the 1980s that defined a generation. The outcast gets the popular girl. The cheerleader realizes there is more to life than being popular. Amanda Peterson was instantly a teen idol. She was voted best young artist that year. Her face was plastered on the covers of Teen Beat and Tiger Beat Magazine.
The world waited for her next movie. They wanted to see more of the beautiful girl from Greeley.
In 1988, she appeared in the Roger Corman film The Lawless Land and another film in 1989 Listen to Me. The movies didn’t do well and Peterson couldn’t get the same success that she had achieved with Can’t Buy Me Love. She returned to Colorado to finish high school and then enrolled in Middlebury College in Vermont.
By 1994, she had dropped out of college and completed her last film Windrunner.
The film roles dried up. The phone stopped ringing and the paparazzi no longer followed her around. Her career had stalled so she returned to her hometown and left Hollywood behind.
It had been seven years since Can’t Buy Me Love premiered and in Hollywood sometimes you’re only as good as your last film. Peterson wanted to start a family and over the next decade, she was married twice and had two children. Life in Colorado was good for a while but her younger days in Hollywood haunted her.
By 2000, Peterson started heavily drinking and doing drugs. She had suffered a sexual assault at age 15 according to her family and carried a heavy burden. Her addiction overtook her life and she was arrested five times over the next decade for driving under the influence, possession of a controlled substance, and assault. In 2005, she spent three months in jail. Her mug shots looked nothing like the famous girl from Hollywood.
She continued a cycle of drugs and alcohol for the next ten years. She supported herself on disability benefits and lived alone in a small apartment. She turned to religion and struggled to get her life back on track. Hollywood had forgotten her and only a few people really understood her problems.
In 2015, she was reported missing by her family. Sadly, Amanda Peterson was found dead in her apartment at the age of 43. Her family believed that she was drug-free at the time of her death. The medical examiner reported that she died of an accidental drug overdose. In her system were medications used for treating heart and lung disease, anxiety, and psychosis. A friend had given her opiates for pain. The cocktail of medications had caused respiratory failure.
Hollywood may have forgotten Amanda Peterson but for many her passing truly was the day the 80s died.