Can't Buy Me Love Star Amanda Peterson Died Of Accidental Drug Overdose
Actress Amanda Peterson, who starred in 80s rom-com ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ opposite Patrick Dempsey, died of an accidental drug overdose, it’s been confirmed.
Pathology reports from the Weld County Coroner in Colorado concluded that the 43-year-old actress had marijuana in her system as well as six times the safe dose of Gabapentin, a painkiller.
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She also had anti-anxiety medication benzodiazepine and the anti-psychotic drug phenothiazine in her system.
It’s been determined that her death was accidental, and resulted from 'complications of morphine affect’ which caused respiratory failure.
It was also suggested that Peterson’s system was 'naïve to opiates’.
Peterson’s mother Sylvia had said that her death 'was not, in any way, a drug thing’ when the news of her death broke in July, and that she had been in 'good spirits’ when she had seen her just days before.
She added that she suffered depression and sleep apnea, but had resolved drug problems that she battled when she was younger.
Her father said that she had also recently been suffering pneumonia and sinusitis.
The toxicology report suggests that she was likely to have been self-medicating to control pain.
She was found dead at her home in Greeley, Colorado, on July 5.
Peterson struggled to get work acting following her breakthrough role, in the teen movie 'Can’t Buy Me Love’, in which she played Cindy Mancini, a high school student who fakes a relationship with a nerd for $1000.
She retired from acting at the age of 23, with her last role listed as Windrunner in 1994.
Peterson also had roles in the 1982 version of 'Annie’ and in TV shows like 'A Year In The Life’ and 'Dougie Howser, MD’.
Both Dempsey and Neil Patrick Harris paid tribute to her on the news of her death.
Dempsey said: “In my memory, she will always be vibrant and young. Gone too soon. Sending my thoughts and prayers to Amanda’s family.”
Harris tweeted: “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.”
Image credit: AP/Bang Showbiz
