this is "nightline." tonight, a young actress on her way to hollywood stardom. >> look, i'm getting fan mail, and it's great. and i'm answering them back, and it it's wonderful, and i went, you can't do that. >> but when it came to her biggest fan, she was unknowingly opening a door to rage and murder. >> he was going to get a gun, no more teddy bears, no more flowers. this is it. how a nhl hockey game saved the life of this super fan in need of a kidney. >> i was like wait a second, i'm going to make a sign.

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woman whose star was riding in hollywood, who opened the door to a dangerous new fan. it's a story of obsession, rage and heartless murder. hollywood, for generations, the place where people have come from all over the country to make their dreams come true. rebecca shafer would come here one day to make her own stardom dreams come true. >> but sadly, her breakout role would lead to disaster sflchlts s she didn't think there were people out there that would want to harm her. >> reporter: since she was a child, rebecca shafer could light up a room. >> this is a picture of me holding rebecca when she was 3 to 4 months old. what can i say? i adored her.

>> reporter: when she was a teenager, she discovered her passion for acting. so, at 16, rebecca made a bold decision. she left her family and friends in portland, oregon and moved across the country to new york. >> that was an extremely happy time for her. she was doing what she liked. >> reporter: almost immediately, she landed a role on the soap opera, "one life to live." >> it's not like we know each other real well or anything. >> annie, i mean, come on. would you get yourself together? aren't you liberated or anything? >> liberated enough to tell you where you can get off, buddy! >> reporter: she then is catapulted into the big time by landing a role on a prime time show called "my sister sam." it's a huge, huge break. >> reporter: my sister sam became a hit. and rebecca became a rising star, landing on the cover of

"seven teen" magazine and hosting parades on cbs. >> i'm rebecca shafer and excited toen be doing this par. >> the first time i saw her answering fan letters, she said look, look, i'm getting fan mail, it's great. they're telling me their problems and i'm answering them back, and it's wonderful, and i'm answering them back. and i said wait a minute, you're answering them back? it's dangerous, promise me you won't. and she didn't promise me. >> back when i was watching "magnum p.i.", this commercial came up. >> reporter: robert bardo was 16 when he first saw "my sister sam". >> she's outgoing and bubbly and everything. >> he wrote a number of fan letters to rebecca shafer and she responded to them, by saying

yours was one of the nicest i got. >> the letter confirms for him that she reciprocates these feelings for him. >> reporter: bardo became obsessed with the actress and decided he had to meet her. he took a plane from his home in tucson and went to burbank and showed up at the lot with flowers and a teddy bear. >> he was met at the gate by the head of security and was told no, you cannot go onto the set, can you not meet with her. go home. >> but basrdo would not be deterred. >> then i was told he was very agitated and very, very angry. >> reporter: it's hard to believe now, but no one alerted the police. no alarm bells went off. rebecca had no idea the danger she was in. for the next two years, she was focussed on her career, branching out into more mature

roles. >> she gets a big part in a movie called "scene from the class struggle in beverly hills." ? >> my idea of taking a risk is losing my birth control pills. >> and it had a love scene in it. >> this flipped some switch in bardo. >> reporter: shafer found herself in the running for the role of a lifetime. >> i'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse. >> and that was the role of mary in "the godfather iii". it was the talk of the town. >> rebecca called us excited to be auditioning for godfather iii. >> she has no idea her stalker is enraged over a love scene she had done in a movie. >> he had decide he was going to go and get a gun. no more teddy bears, no more flowers, this is it.

>> reporter: bardo, now 19, had hired a private investigator who got her asdrddress from the dmv. >> he gets an overnight with a bag and gun and arrives early in the morning and arrives at her place. two people have it in their mind to get to her apartment, one is a courier for the script for godfather three. the other is her deranged stalker. one she is expect being. one s one is not. >> he rings the buzzer. when she came down and answered the door, it was robert john bardo. >> he mumbled something about being her biggest fan, showed her the autographed photograph he received in the mail. she politely excused herself, told mr. bardo she had to get ready for an interview. >> she shakes his hand, wishes him well and he goes on his way. >> reporter: but he came back a

second time. >> now she has already dealt with him. she has other things to do. and she says to him -- this is his account we have to go with -- she says to him, you're wasting my time. >> mr. bardo stated, i forgot to give you something. withdrew a handgun from his waist band and shot her once in the chest right into the heart. >> reporter: right after the murder, bardo took a bus back to tucson. the very next day, tucson police got a call about a man running in traffic on. freeway. >> he was screaming "i killed rebecca shafer." >> we went very quickly and met the detectives and marsha clark the prosecutor. >> i didn't know quite what to say to them. what do you say? other than i'm going to fight so hard to bring her killer to justice. >> reporter: two years after her murder, bardo was found guilty of first degree murder. >> my reaction was relief and the family was relieved too.

>>'s ove it's over, it's over. he'll be in there the rest of his life, thank god. >> i'm sure it was a mixture of grief, sadness, some satisfaction in justice. >> will it give you some kind of peace? >> i think it will. >> reporter: robert john bardo was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole. abc news recently reached out to him in prison, and he responded by phone. >> i accept full responsibility for what i've done. my thinking was negative, and i was blaming others for things that were happening within me, but with regard to rebecca shafer, she was irreplaceable. i think about her every day, she should be here after i think about what i have done and i have a lot of tremendous guilt. >> katy perry, an alleged stalker arrested. >> reporter: decades later, many celebrities are still targeted by stalkers. but it led to the first

anti-stalking law in the nation. a positive change borne from a senseless tragedy. >> she is forever fixed in our mind as the beautiful 21 year old. those who loved her will always miss her as a person and for the unexplored potential that she as a human being had. >> had she lived, rebecca shafer would have been 51 years old today. next, how one woman's love of hockey may have saved her life. age, the products i've tried just didn't fit right. they were too loose. it's getting in the way of our camping trips. but with a range of sizes, depend® fit-flex is made for me. with a range of sizes for all body types, depend® fit-flex underwear is guaranteed to be your best fit. for all body types, with advil liqui-gels, what stiff joints?

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kelly was a die-hard pittsburgh penguins fan, she

also needed a new kidney. how her love of hockey saved her life. here's ryan mcgee who reported the story for espn's e-60. >> reporter: in the southeast corner of pennsylvania is lancaster county. this is where kelly was born and raised. but, in december of 2015, when kelly was 28 years old, her health took an unexpected turn. >> i was making christmas eve dinner with my mom. i had no color in my face anymore. so they took me to the hospital. i had spiked 104 degree fever. >> reporter: what started as a simple infection turned into sepsis. a condition that, if untreated, can rapidly lead to tissue damage and organ failure. doctors gave her an aggressive

course of medicines, but that came with a cost. >> the medications she had to be on that saved her life really did damage to the kidneys. >> the doctor said, you know, we don't know if you might need any treatment for your kidneys in the future, but we're going to monitor it. >> reporter: march 8, 2016. after nearly two and a half months in the hospital, kelly was finally discharged and returned to her normal life. that summer she met tyler. >> she was very sweet and she was very nice. i didn't know that she had been in the hospital. nothing led me to believe that there was anything else going on under the surface. >> reporter: soon after, tyler introduced her to something new. hockey and the pittsburgh penguins. >> i was a really great relationship were an incredible man.

i was living my best life. >> reporter: in the summer of 2017, kelly went in for one of her routine kidney checkups. >> the doctors looked at me, and they said you are in end stage renal failure. and i said, i'm sorry? i'm sorry, what? what? what? wh? >> reporter: end stage renal failure means the kidney function has dropped below 15%. >> her options were to do nothing and go on to dialysis where she has a ten-year life-span or look at going to transplant and getting a replacement organ and avoiding dialysis all together. >> reporter: november 2017, kelly registered on the national transplant waiting list. where she became one of more than 113,000 people awaiting an

organ. >> so i was getting worried because my kidney function was still dropping, and i thought, what else can i do? tyler and i were scheduled to go to a penguins game. and i was like, wait a second. i'm going to make a sign! calling all hockey fans. i need a kidney, kidney, kidney, and the google voice number. and gratefully yours, kelly. >> reporter: march 2018. >> we went down during the pregame skate and were standing maybe six or seven steps from the ice and the glass. >> i said i'm going to hold this thing up really high for 15 minutes. i'm standing with this thing up over my head, just hoping that somebody will see it. someone comes down and taps me on the shoulder and says, can i take your picture? and i was like, sure. >> reporter: during the first tv

timeout. >> to my surprise, i recognized the person in the photo. i turn to kelly and say -- >> honey. i said what? >> you're on the penguins' twitter feet ri twitter feed right now. >> wow, from that moment my phone didn't stop ringing. >> reporter: thousands of people reached out to kelly, offering encouragement and support. among them came a message from a teacher in delaware. a fellow diehard penguins fan. >> i got a facebook message from a man named jeff. and jeff said hey, did you find a donor yet? and i said no, i haven't. >> she said, you know, call this number, and i did. then i started the process. i knew that she was sick. she needed help. >> reporter: 34-year-old jeff

linde now had to find out if he was a match for kelly. on october 18th, he got his answer. >> i got the message. it said congratulations, you're a match, and i took my glasses and just dropped them on the table and just went like this. took the biggest breath that you could possibly imagine. >> reporter: on november 6, 2018, seven months after kelly made her sign, she met up with fellow penguins fan jeff at upmc hospital in pittsburgh. the procedure to remove jeff's kidney took two hours. it was carried into an adjoining operating room where 11 hours later the transplant surgery was completed. >> my kidney function was at 9%. and three days later i'm sitting here with kidney function of 99%. there's no words to really express the gratitude and the, just the way i feel about what he's done for me, because he

literally saved my life. >> if i didn't do it, somebody else would have done it, you know. just next man. that's what coach sullivan always says for the penguins. next man up. >> reporter: one month after surgery, december 27, 2018, kelly and jeff are honored guests of the penguins' home game. they get a chance to visit the penguins' locker room. >> thank you! i just, i'm really happy that i'm healthy enough to be here. and i owe a lot of thanks to a lot of people. i love this as terrible as the world may seem at times, there are so many

good people that are just out there, ready and willing to help. >> e-60 airs on sunday mornings on espn and is also available on the espn app. and next, the first trailer from the intense conclusion of the skywalker saga. hey. this is amazing. with moderate to severe ulcerative colitis, are you okay? even when i was there, i never knew when my symptoms would keep us apart. so i talked to my doctor about humira. i learned humira can help get, and keep uc under control when other medications haven't worked well enough. and it helps people achieve control that lasts. so you can experience few or no symptoms. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems,

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i've slain your dreaded dragon. for saving the kingdom what doth thou desire? my lord? hey good knight. where are you going? ♪ ♪ climbing up on solsbury hill ♪ grab your things, salutations. coffee that is a cup above is always worth the quest. nespresso. tis all i desire. did thou bring enough for the whole kingdom?

george: nespresso, what else? ♪ we've passed on all we a thousand generations live in you now. but this is your fight. >> wow, i'm in. finally tonight, the end of a "star wars" trilogy that started with "the force awakens." here's a look at the new movie, "the rise of skywalker."

now the new trailer giving fans a peak at the thrilling conclusion of the "star wars" saga. the ultimate battle for the fate of the universe. old heroes and villains return for one final adventure. a glimpse of carrie menacingly familiar laugh. episode nine, "star wars," the rise of skywalker will be in theaters this december. it was george lucas who said you can't do it unless you can imagine it. that's "nightline." remember, our full episodes are streaming on

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