Shauna Grant's suicide sent shock waves throughout the adult film industry, which at the time was reeling from media and governmental scrutiny. Critics pointed to her death as evidence of the industry's destructive effects -- not even the most famous starlets were immune to porn's evil nature, they said. Shauna Grant's death was nothing quite so dramatic, however, but rather was the culmination of years of insecurities, failed relationships, and severe cocaine abuse.

The beautiful girl who would grow up to be erotic superstar Shauna Grant was born Colleen Applegate in Bellflower, California. When she was 9 years old, the family followed her father's job with the phone company to Farmington, Minnesota, a tree-lined village of 3,500 that lies thirty miles of corn and soybean fields south of Minneapolis. Almost immediately, Shauna Grant began to chafe against the bit of the small town atmosphere. She dreamed of bigger things than sleepy Farmington could possibly offer.

At Farmington High School, Shauna Grant engaged in cheerleading and softball, but her main allegiance was to her boyfriend, Mike Marcell, and the partiers they hung with. Upon her 1981 graduation, she took a job with her father's phone company, but Shauna Grant's fate was not in small town middle America. After a prophetic attempted overdose of sinus pills, Marcell packed up his black El Camino and the pair headed to Hollywood to make her a star.

Once in Los Angeles, they found that jobs were scarce . After a couple weeks of fruitless searching, Shauna Grant answered an ad in a trade magazine looking for 'figure models.' Shauna Grant had the figure, and a photo-shoot was set up. Although Shauna Grant was uncomfortable at first with the erotic nature of the pictures, she wasn't uncomfortable with the much-needed cash they provided.

Instantly, a star was born.

Shauna Grant's fresh-scrubbed, innocent beauty intoxicated all who saw her, and the photo spreads began to come hot and heavy. Within two months of hitting L.A., Shauna Grant was had modeled for most major adult mags, and her relationship with Marcell had ended.

Shauna Grant became the most photographed woman in the sex-mag field over the next six months. The money began to roll in, sometimes at the rate of $2000 per day. Soon she began dabbling in porno shorts. As Shauna Grant's income grew, so did her taste for cocaine, a habit she'd picked up in L.A. that had the added side-effect of keeping her weight down, a powerful lure for a girl constantly in fear of being overweight and ugly (although how such a beautiful girl could ever think that is beyond imagination!).

Shauna Grant's work in adult loops led to the breakup of another relationship, but she soon rebounded into one with adult film producer Bobby Hollander. Her new mentor wasted no time in getting Shauna Grant involved in full-fledged erotic films. Hollander christened his new starlet Shauna Grant (sometimes spelled Shana).