Film This article is more than 8 years oldPatrick Dempsey and Neil Patrick Harris pay tribute to Amanda Peterson
This article is more than 8 years oldCan’t Buy Me Love co-star and Oscars host take to Twitter to remember late actor, as her mother dismisses talk of daughter’s struggles with drugs
The actor Patrick Dempsey has joined those paying tribute to the late Amanda Peterson, his co-star in the 1980s romantic comedy Can’t Buy Me Love, via Twitter.
Dempsey, best known for films such as Made of Honour and Enchanted, said he would remember the young actor as she had appeared in Steve Rash’s 1987 film.
In my memory, she will always be vibrant and young. Gone too soon. Sending my thoughts and prayers to Amanda's family.
— Patrick Dempsey (@PatrickDempsey) July 7, 2015The pair were star names in Hollywood following the release of Can’t Buy Me Love, a high school rom-com in the vein of John Hughes’s celebrated oeuvre, which centres on a teenage nerd who pays a popular student $1,000 (£647) to act as his girlfriend for a month. While Dempsey has had an enduring career on the big and small screens, Peterson retired from acting more than two decades ago at the age of 23. She was just 16 when Can’t Buy Me Love was filmed.
The Oscars ceremony host Neil Patrick Harris, who starred with the actor in the 1990s TV show Doogie Howser MD, said Peterson had been a great help during the early stages of his career. Meredith Salenger, who appeared alongside Peterson in the 1982 musical Annie, tweeted photographs of the pair together at that time.
When I first came to L.A. and started auditioning, Amanda Peterson gave me advice, tips, friendship. She just passed away at age 43. #RIP
— Neil Patrick Harris (@ActuallyNPH) July 7, 2015Rest in Peace my dear old friend. Amanda Peterson. I loved you. pic.twitter.com/0oZj8xvaGg
— Meredith Salenger (@MeredthSalenger) July 7, 2015The mother of two was found alone at her home in an apartment complex in Greeley, Colorado on 5 July. The actor’s father told the website TMZ that Peterson suffered from sleep apnea, with pneumonia and sinusitis also cited among her recent health issues.
People magazine reported this week that Peterson struggled with drug abuse following the end of her Hollywood career, describing her as “troubled” and publishing police arrest photos. But the actor’s mother, Sylvia, told Entertainment Tonight that those problems were well in the past.
“Amanda was in very good spirits,” she said of the pair’s last meeting. “This was not, in any way, a drug thing.”
Sylvia also told People: “She was in bed, and she’d had a wonderful day, and we were planning on a dinner the next day. So it was just a very, very big surprise.
“She was so great. She had a cute sense of humour and a love of history – just a very, very cute person.”
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