A Life Ended Too Soon!

She was born Colleen Applegate on May 30, 1963 in Bellflower, California, but raised in Farmington, 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 she got 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 couldn’t adapt to the small town, country life.

With her boyfriend Mike, and against her parent’s wishes, the couple packed up and headed to Hollywood where they were both determined to make Colleen a star. While they knew chances were slim, they believed with her looks and body it wouldn’t be difficult. They both felt Shauna had what Hollywood wanted and they were determined for her to make it in mainstream films. However, like most,  especially young women, who come to Hollywood looking for instant stardom and fame, it didn’t come Colleen’s way and by now their money was very scarce.

Colleen answered an ad for figure models and got hired right away. With her natural beauty it didn’t take very long before she was being seen in layouts in a number of men’s magazines including Club and Hustler. Within a few months her modeling career began to take hold, the money was very good and she and Mike parted ways. Colleen was making as much as four figures a day for some shoots.

With her blonde, fresh scrubbed look it was suggested maybe she should try a few porno shorts that paid well. Coupled with a new found career and money Colleen also found a new high with cocaine. Her work in porn loops brought her in contact with well known adult film producer Bobby Hollander. He came up with the new name of Shauna Grant and got her into full length porn films.

Her first film was “Paper Dolls” and she was an instant star with not just her looks, but her very healthy and voracious appetite for sex. The offers kept rolling in along with 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 very well with money, first class travel, being a star and indulging in her new 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 his leather goods store. She had changed her life to a point and all seemed to be going well until Erlich was arrested and convicted on drug charges. Suddenly Shauna was cut off from his money, the life she was living, the supply of cocaine and she 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 her 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. By now the cocaine use had 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 young age of 21. Her suicide sent shock waves through the adult industry for quite some time. All the years of insecurity, failed relationships and heavy cocaine use had finally taken its toll on the young beauty who, unfortunately, never got the help she was in such desperate need of.

While she did only about 50 films during her time in porn she made a huge impression with her performances. She was one of the most beautiful girls to ever appear in front of the camera and her loss was tragic. In 1999 Ms. Grant was posthumously inducted into the XRCO Hall of Fame. Be sure to check out some of her films and you will see why she became an instant hit and is still very popular today. Who knows what might have been in her future had Shauna Grant been able to get the help she needed during her young life.

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