COLORADO — Amanda Peterson, the Actress best known for the ’87 romantic comedy Can’t Buy Me Love, has died. She was 43-years-old.
Peterson’s father told TMZ she was found at her Greeley, Colorado home on Sunday.
He said an official cause of death is unknown, but that “she had some illness and a sleep apnea problem that may have contributed.”
“She died on Friday morning. It’s a big loss. Such a loveable person,” Peterson’s mother said. “She had some medical problems with her heart but we don’t know the cause yet.”
The family is awaiting autopsy results to determine the official cause of death, CNN reported.
A native of Greeley, Colorado, Peterson was the youngest of three children. While living in Colorado, she made her stage debut in a production of The Sound of Music.
At the age of 9, she won a role in the musical film Annie, where she appeared as a dancing extra. Peterson went on to land guest spots on Father Murphy and Silver Spoons. In the 1983–1984 television season, she co-starred as Squirt Sawyer on NBC’s Boone. Boone was canceled after one season.
In 1985, she won her first starring role in the feature film Explorers. The following year, she co-starred in the Emmy Award-winning miniseries A Year in the Life. It was third-highest rated miniseries of the 1986–87 US television season with a 16.9/27 rating/share. and was later adapted into a television series of the same name. The series aired from 1987 to 1988 on NBC.
In 1987, Peterson co-starred with Patrick Dempsey in the teen comedy Can’t Buy Me Love. The film earned mixed reviews but became the sleeper hit of the summer. As a result, Peterson and Dempsey obtained teen idol status after the release and subsequently appeared on covers of teen magazines such as Tiger Beat, Teen Beat and many others for a considerable amount of time. Peterson went on to appear in other films including Listen to Me (1989), and made guest appearance on Doogie Howser, M.D. in 1990. Peterson’s last onscreen role was in the 1994 film, WindRunner, starring Jason Wiles.
