The movie portrayed them as real straightlaced simpletons, incapable or unwilling to deal with anything outside their "small town" existence. I vaguely remember of this TV movie i watched long ago in France because i am french and found it on the net in American..poor Pauleen! [10], Grant persuaded her friend, veteran porn performer Kelly Nichols, to take over the role Grant had been offered in Matinee Idol. PBS delivers with ''Death of a Porn Queen,'' the latest offering of its highly respected documentary series ''Frontline,'' at 9 p.m. Tuesday on WTTW- Ch. Pauleen Anderson: [attempts to leave] Fine! In June 1990, Applegate's mother Karen Applegate appeared on the tabloid news show Hard Copy (1987) where she disputed the official ruling (she would later appear Entertainment Tonight (1981) echoing the same sentiment). Just a nosebleed. This TV-movie begins like most others in the good-girl-goes-bad vein, but it drew me in regardless. [2] She was sometimes credited as Callie Aimes, Callie Aims, or Colleen Applegate. The movie was made because Colleen Applegates story is representative of so many young people, Ocamb said. His picture resonates with a sad, gritty truth that is tough to fathom but well-portrayed for our benefit. The .22-caliber slug ripped through her brain and lodged in the bedroom wall of her boyfriend`s posh home in Palm Springs. Tastefully, with humanity, and completely free of exploitation. Her friendly director passed her along to his cocaine supplier, a man twice her age, with whom she moved in. The possibility of a foul play investigation hung in the balance. The short, tragic odyssey of Colleen Applegate, who left Minnesota at 18, became porn star Shauna Grant, and killed herself at age 20. Applegate attempted suicide in December, 1981 by overdosing on prescription sinus pills. It profiled Colleen Applegate, a small-town Minnesota teenager who, running away to Los Angeles in 1982, soon after became the porn actress known as "Callie Aimes" and then more famously as "Shauna Grant." Blonde, rosy-cheeked and meaty, she was the fantasy girl for every dirty-old-man-next-door. Shattered Innocence depicts a high school cheerleader who is bored and restless with her life in Banning, Kan., and after graduation heads for the bright lights and glitter of Hollywood. She stayed in the small town, working first as a cashier and then as a repair clerk with the phone company. Dr. Packett says there's allergies. . The young woman whose innocence is shattered is based on real-life porn-star Shauna Grant. [7][8], On March 14, 1984, she was a multiple nominee and presenter (with John Leslie) at the 8th Annual Adult Film Association Awards show at the Coconut Grove Ambassador Hotel. Her parents offered to pay for her college expenses, but she believed she would no longer be comfortable at home in Minnesota. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. My first thoughts upon seeing this film 14 years ago, on TV, were with regards to the level of difficulty, and subsequent success, that the producers/director must have had in making a movie about pornography without the ability to use nudity, coarse language or explicit scenes and situations that make up the core of a pornographic film. She died on March 21, 1984 in Palm Springs, California, USA. Here are the lyrics to that song I was talking about BTW: As a BetterHelp affiliate, we may receive compensation from BetterHelp if you purchase products or services through the links provided. Join Facebook to connect with Colleen Applegate and others you may know. ''Because the mind of a typical 18-year-old is not prepared to make the right decisions in this town with these opportunists. [9], At the awards show, Grant agreed to work on her first adult film in 10 months, Matinee Idol. The whole mess is true. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. There are no answers. ''DEATH OF A PORN QUEEN'' is an account of the short, sad career of an 18-year-old who fled her Minnesota home in 1982, found success in Hollywood's pornography industry, developed a taste for cocaine and killed herself at the age of 20. Learn how and when to remove these template messages, Learn how and when to remove this template message, "Masseuse 3 and Caf Flesh 2 Top XRCO Awards", "A Porn Star's Suicide at 20 Leaves a Legacy of Shattered Innocenceand a Shattered Family", "Feeding on Shauna Grant: Ritual Cannibalism in Two Documentary Retrospectives", "A Porn Star's Suicide at 20 Leaves a Legacy of Shattered Innocence and a Shattered Family", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Shauna_Grant&oldid=1134050571, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles needing additional references from August 2014, All articles needing additional references, Articles lacking in-text citations from December 2011, Articles with multiple maintenance issues, Articles with unsourced statements from October 2020, Articles with unsourced statements from October 2014, Articles with unsourced statements from December 2011, Articles with unsourced statements from February 2013, Articles using Template:Adult Film Database name, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 16 January 2023, at 19:49. The film is based on Michael London's article, "The Death of Colleen", which detailed the short life and death of adult film actress Colleen Applegate (known professionally as Shauna Grant). Melinda Dillon is memorable as the disapproving mother who understands neither her daughter's restlessness nor how the high-paying porno business would prove as addictive as cocaine to a young girl with nothing to sell but her looks. In a way, Applegate caught up with her star-struck dream. Like many, she came from the rural midwest and was attracted to the bright lights of LA hoping to make it as a legit model only to pose nude and end up in porn. Joanna Lee plays the part of Pamela Lee, a porn actress who killed herself at the age of 20 after heavy cocaine addiction with her young life filled with misfortunes. Jonna Lee, which was "very watchable" throughout, does a good job of portraying Grant. Scenes such as the one where Shauna goes back home for Christmas, proudly showing off a scrapbook of nude photos to her family and then getting rebuffed by her appalled mother, are both tender and sad, and Shauna's fight to reclaim her life at the finale is quite gripping. He even tracked down some of her belongings she had left behind when she changed identities. Colleen Applegate was born in Bellflower, California. It's not quite that simple in the movie. In one year, she made 30 X-rated films, had sex with 37 men on camera, contracted herpes, had an abortion and made $100,000, most of which she spent on cocaine. Can't take your eyes off of it, even though I know the people in the porn business saw a young beautiful woman mostly likely lied to her and worse, but either than that awesome characters, The true story of Colleen Applegate/Shauna Grant, A Family treated TV bio-pic "flavor of the moment", Shauna Grant, Based on the life and death of Colleen Applegate. Uplevel BACK 644.1M . She ran away from her small town in Minnesota and proceeded to appear in over 30 pornographic films, earning up to $100,000 in her two-year career. She retired from adult films in 1983. The pay isn't bad - $100 to $1,500 depending on who's doing the shooting. Mr. Austin is given to observations about Colleen being ''lost,'' ''unprepared'' and so forth. You get the idea of what the world of pornography is all about, what it does to the individual is that it kills her.. The real "Pauline" (a.k.a. Coleen's birth date was listed as 06.01.47. The basic story is true. Everyday that we insist on fragmenting ourselves we ensure that we will continue to produce this type of individual. [3] Her father later said he never discussed the suicide attempt with his daughter; he and his wife at the time (Colleen's mother, Karen Lee Applegate) believed their daughter was merely seeking attention. Marcell then saw an ad for the World Modeling Agency in Van Nuys, which sought recruits for "figure modeling". When Applegate was barred from a Minnesota friend`s wedding because of her new career, it hurt her deeply. Be the first one to, Advanced embedding details, examples, and help. **SPOILERS** Surprisingly good made for TV movie about the short life and violent death of Colleen Applegate who was known by her many fans as porno film star Shauna Grant. In the film the lead has a fake ID stating she is 21 while she is only 19 but in 1983 the legal drinking age in the US was 19 and didn't change to 21 until 1985. She had three sisters, Veronica, Sheila and Shelrae and one brother, Mike. Colleen Marie Applegate, known professionally as It is very difficult for the family. Very forgettable stuff. A high school graduate leaves behind her modest life and finds work in the sex industry, but it ends in disaster. On March 21st 1984, Grant committed suicide at the age of twenty in Palm Springs by shooting herself with a . The second best result is Colleen Joy Applegate age 50s in Spokane, WA in the East Central neighborhood. After briefly giving up her pornographic movie career, but being unable to kick the cocaine addiction, the young woman portrayed by actress Jonna Lee is about to re-enter the world of pornography when kills herself. The desert air dries up my membranes. Shauna Grant) was born Colleen Marie Applegate on May 20, 1963. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. Score one. Her parents and friends seem perplexed, and the answers ventured by the narrator, Al Austin, who produced the program along with Mike Sullivan and Andy Greenspan, sound as though they were cribbed from teen-age how-not-to books. For a made for TV movie, it wasn't bad. His advice was not taken. So,I was desperately trying to trace the title in english and well, thanks to imdb I've finally found it!This story really moved me, I was so sad thinking about this girl who tries to gain success and. Born in Southern California but grew up in Minnesota. Colleen Applegate's high school yearbook was one of a very few personal possessions she kept with her. We later meet her manager, Bobby Hollander, and her cocaine-dealing boyfriend, Jake Erlich, who was in jail and trying to dump her when Applegate killed herself. movie was based on the life and ultimate suicide of Colleen Applegate, a young woman from Minnesota who went to Hollywood at the age of 18 with dreams of stardom, became a porn star under the name of "Shauna Grant" and then returned to her hometown two years later to be buried, a tragic suicide at the age of 20. The weapon was owned by her boyfriend, a cocaine dealer. Hollander launched her adult film career, suggesting what he felt was a "classy" stage name, Shauna Grant. Coleen is related to Roge C Applegate and Gina Chelaine Erickson as well as 1 additional person. However, despite these accolades and her beauty, Grant had some difficulty getting work due to her cocaine addiction and lack of "enthusiasm" during sex scenes. Shauna Grant (May 30, 1963 March 23, 1984), was an American pornographic actress and nude model. 1 videocassette (58 min.) Instead, they contributed flowers and letters. porn star Shauna Grant, who died March 23, 1984, at 20 from a .22-caliber rifle shot to the head. Lived In South River NJ, Hightstown NJ, Monroe Township NJ, Mount Holly NJ. Referring to her drug habit, he says, ''It's hard for a cocaine dealer to control someone close to you.'' As a fast-rising adult entertainment personality, she was featured in Virginia, Suzie Superstar, and Flesh and Laces 1 & 2, among many other films. As Shauna Grant, she made dozens of popular adult movies, usually plot-oriented. Death, Burial, Cemetery & Obituaries. JavaScript is disabled. Reported for Frontline by Al Austin, Death of a Porn Queen unfolds through the eyes of Applegates parents, friends and colleagues, some of them shady and apparently destructive influences who pass through her life in a gauzy twilight. She then started using cocaine to lose weight. Simply, movingly, effectively and unsensationally, this 60-minute production from WCCO-TV in Minneapolis retraces the route of a wholesome ex-cheerleader from her tiny hometown of Farmington, Minn., to the sewers of Hollywood porn films and cocaine addiction, a route that led ultimately to her suicide in the Palm Springs home of her 44-year-old lover. Judy Woodruff, Alan Austin, WGBH (Television station : Boston, Mass. She stayed in the town, working first as a cashier and then as a repair clerk with the phone company. She ran away from her small town in Minnesota and proceeded to appear in over 30 pornographic films, earning up to $100,000 in her brief, two-year career. Within a year, Colleen was a gorgeous, triple-X porn starlet named Shauna Grant. Its impossible to know even from this fine film exactly when and where she went wrong, why she shot herself and who is to blame. As Austin says, this show is about dreams, values, choices, drugs and porn. [citation needed], Grant's popularity earned her three acting nominations at the Erotic Film Awards in March, 1984. ''We always got high before we did it,'' says a porn star who taught Applegate the ropes. --after he took the pictures for Penthouse--to get out of nude photography as soon as possible. Applegate's relationship with her boyfriend ended within their first two months in California; Marcell left her to return to Farmington, Minnesota and ultimately joined the U.S. Army. The real "Pauline" (a.k.a. She left. Her name was Colleen Marie Applegate. For those really interested in Shauna Grant's decline to eventual suicide this movie treats the matter very superficially. That is no small feat in itself. Shauna Grant. Left on her own and reluctant to go back to making porn flicks, Miss Applegate apparently went to pieces, using up all the cocaine she could find in the process. [citation needed], On March 23, 1984, Grant died by suicide in Palm Springs by shooting herself with an AR-15 style .22 caliber rifle.[11]. Upon seeing this film again just last night (thanks in part to the "on TV, schedule links" found on this site) I was first struck by my disbelief in the probability of the main character, or any of the other porno actresses/models portrayed in the film, as being seen as physically stunning women. When mother Melinda Dillon discovers this, she is repulsed, even more so when Lee returns home for Christmas, boasting about her real work, of course leaving out the fact that she is doing drugs. Sarah on what the Church tragically needs today, Catholic Nun Demands Impeachment of Argentinian Judge Who Granted Custody to Mother Who Murdered Her Own Son. ***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** I've seen this movie in italian,as I do live in Italy. 11. An agent, Jim South, took pictures and sent them to a Penthouse magazine photographer, Steve Hicks. Grant was provided with her own make-up artist, 27-year-old Laurie Smith (who was also an adult star). Without stunts or theatrics, Death of a Porn Queen delivers a powerful message about the environment of drugs and exhibitionist sex that attracted, briefly enriched and ultimately destroyed Applegate, as gossip about her careening life shocked and titillated the folks back home. She was completely un-hip and non-L.A."[citation needed], Her wholesome, "girl next door" looks soon landed her work posing for other magazines such as Chic, Hustler, Swank, and Penthouse. This is a movie that could have been tawdry and exploitative, and indeed, I recall reading that the parents of Colleen Applegate (whose life this is loosely based on) were displeased with it, saying it made the pornographers look like they were just running a business and Colleen got into trouble on her own. '', See the article in its original context from. Continue with Recommended Cookies. You let me be Colleen; you didnt expect me to be anyone else, she says about Erlich on an audio tape discovered in his house. H.264 IA . TV movies have a lack of fluidity of camerawork and lack of showmanship as is the case with "Shattered Innocence". Coleen K Applegate, 76. The film doesn't have the theatrical style of something like "Star 80", but it's actually a much better film. Only the father seems somewhat uncharacteristically unfettered by his daughter's lifestyle, which doesn't really ring true for any father with daughters, that I've ever known. Oh yes, they made a BIG deal about "the pornography business" and how "degrading it is" and how "this always happens" to "those kind of people" when Shauna was found with a self inflicted gunshot wound and later died. As we know, they wind up on the streets, Ocamb said. The first way to ensure ratings success is the disclaimer, which warns adults to lock the kids in their rooms, for they are about to see a program that contains sexually explicit language and scenes. The consent submitted will only be used for data processing originating from this website. Card. When the masses tune in, they will be shocked but not by sex. ", Christian Congregations (Christians Only). Smith, who co-starred with Grant in several movies (including Suzie Superstar, The Young Like It Hot, and Bad Girls IV), also became Grant's best friend and fellow cocaine user during that period. The film ends with Pauline, the character based on Colleen Applegate (known professionally as Shauna Grant), dying of a self inflicted gunshot wound to the head. I had no idea that this was based on a true story, but it's a pretty believable premise. Ignoring Hicks' advice, Applegate continued working with World Modeling Agency, where she met veteran porn producer Bobby Hollander. How did a cheerleader become a porno star and commit suicide?. But to correctly remember the American porno, or even modeling, business back in the early 80's, before excessive silicone implanting, collagen injecting and wide-spread plastic surgery use, one must remember that a woman WAS judged beautiful based on her natural features and attributes, not to mention actually being expected to "act" as well as perform sexually in the films. Weeks after the event, police were still awaiting results of toxicological and gun-residue tests. This 1988 made for t.v. Sep 17, 2007. And that's sad."[5]. 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