TheWrap reports that Amanda Peterson, the actress best known for her co-starring role in the 1987 teen movie Can’t Buy Me Love, has died at her home in Colorado. She was 43.
Peterson played Cindy Mancini, a popular cheerleader paid $1000 to pretend-date social misfit Ronald Miller (portrayed by Patrick Dempsey). This fake relationship soon evolves into the real thing, however, setting up the kind of high school caste conflicts intrinsic to films of that era. Prior to starring in Can’t Buy Me Love, Peterson appeared in a variety of sitcoms (including a memorable turn in Silver Spoons, where she played a new girl who breaks Ricky’s heart) and the 1986 miniseries A Year In The Life. Other notable roles included a role as a blind hospital patient in an episode of Doogie Howser, M.D., and a co-starring role alongside Kirk Cameron and Jami Gertz in the 1989 movie Listen To Me. Peterson left acting in 1994, and kept a low profile in the ensuing years.