She was born Colleen Applegate in California in 1963, but was mainly raised in Minnesota after her folks moved there due to her father’s job with the phone company. At Farmington High School Colleen was very involved in both cheerleading and softball, but with her blonde hair, great looks and curvy body as a young teen, she became involved with a boyfriend and hung out with the party crowd. After graduation she went to work for her father at the phone company, but she just couldn’t adapt to the small town, country life. So with her boyfriend Mike, and her not happy parents, they packed up and headed to Hollywood where they were both determined to make Colleen a star. After all, Mike reasoned, with her looks and body it wouldn’t be difficult.

Like most who come out to Hollywood looking for stardom, it didn’t come her way and money was scarce. One day Colleen answered an ad for figure models and with those looks and figure it didn’t take very long before this new face was being seen in layouts in every men’s magazine. Within a few months her career was beginning to take hold, the money was very good but her relationship with Mike came to an end. Colleen was making as much as $2,000 a day for some shoots. Her blonde, fresh scrubbed look took hold and soon she took up the suggestion to dabble in a few porno shorts. Coupled with a new found career and money Colleen also found herself a new high…..cocaine. Her work in the porn loops brought her in contact with well known adult film producer Bobby Hollander. He came up with the name of Shauna Grant and was mainly responsible for getting her into full length porn films.

Her first film was “Paper Dolls” and she was an instant star with not just her looks, but very healthy appetite for sex. The offers kept rolling in as did the money. Other films she starred in included “Sex Games”, “Summer Camp Girls”, “Flesh and Laces”, “Golden Girls” and a number of others. Shauna was living the high life with limos, first class hotels, being a porn star and her hobby, cocaine. She broke off with Hollander and got involved with a coke dealer named Jake Erlich who wanted her to get out of porn. They went to Palm Springs and she took over managing a leather goods store he owned. She had changed her life to a point and all was going along well until Erlich was arrested and convicted on drug charges. Suddenly Shauna was cut off from his money, the life she had and became frantic.

Still remembered for her big splash in porn, she was asked to go to San Francisco to shoot a new film that would pay extremely well. Once again cocaine came into the picture even though she was regaining her star status having been nominated for 3 awards in 1984. But the cocaine use had now become too much and she was having visions of people stalking her. On the night of March 21, 1984, Shauna Grant took a .22 caliber rifle to her head pulled the trigger and in an instant her life was over at the age of just twenty. Her suicide sent shock waves through the adult industry for days and weeks. All the years of insecurity, failed relationships, cocaine use had finally taken its toll on the young beauty who never got the help she was in such desperate need of..

While Shauna Grant did only about 70 films between 1983 and 1986 she made a huge impression with her performances. (There have been compilations out over the years). She was, without question, one of the most beautiful young stars of the time to appear in front of the camera. Her loss was a tragic one that many veterans of the adult industry still remember and shake their head at today. Today she would have been only 52 years old. Who knows what might have been had Shauna been able to stay clean and get the help she needed during her young life.

Art Koch, National Features & DVD Editor, NightMoves Magazines and AAN