 Samantha Smith
- Twelve-year-old schoolgirl from Maine who became famous after
she wrote a letter to the late Soviet chief Yuri Andropov in
1982, asking the biting question "Why do you want to conquer the
world?"
Her written inquiry won her a trip to the Kremlin in 1983 and
instant celebrity status as a goodwill ambassador for America.
She traveled to Russia and Japan, interviewed presidential
candidates on the Disney Channel and appeared on THE TONIGHT
SHOW with Johnny Carson.
In 1985, Samantha was chosen to be the daughter of Robert
Wagner in his new TV series LIME STREET/ABC/1985. Unfortunately,
after only shooting four episodes, she died in a plane crash
with her father while returning from England on August 26, 1985.
The news of her death lead the Soviet Union newspaper Pravda to
write "Frightening, scalding news has come across the ocean:
Samantha is no more." Samantha's costar Robert Wagner remarked,
"She was so enduring, so loving and full of life."
Samantha Smith was memorialized in a statue near Augusta, Maine's
capitol city.
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