Actress Jennifer Stahl had hoped she’d found her big break when she landed a role in hit 1987 film Dirty Dancing, but sadly, her story is a much more tragic one.

Jennifer was one of the Dirty Dancers in the movie and can be seen standing next to Patrick Swayze in those famous final scenes.

The year before, she’d appeared in horror movie Necropolis, and had hoped that Dirty Dancing would be the movie that launched her career – but it didn’t work out.

Unfortunately for Jennifer, her acting career didn’t take off and she had only a few more small roles.

After the Patrick Swayze smash, she played Mindy in Firehouse, was credited as Girl with Whipped Cream in Identity Crisis and Woman with Professor Bob in video game I’m Your Man.

And that video game in 1992 is the last acting credit listed for her on IMDb.

While she didn’t become the star she’d dreamed of being, and despite many failed auditions, it’s said Jennifer continued to describe herself as an actress and musician.

And according to Independent, she began selling marijuana to pay the bills.

What happened to Jennifer Stahl?

The publication says that Jennifer operated her business out of her apartment above Carnegie Deli, a tourist hotspot on Seventh Avenue in New York, but that she only sold to people she knew and kept hired muscle on the door during her operating hours.

Tragically, one day in May 2001 she was killed while chatting over wine with a group of friends and having her hair cut at her apartment.

She was 38.

At 7.30pm that day, two men showed up at her apartment and shot five people. Three of them, including Jennifer, were killed.

The New York Times reported at the time that Jennifer lay dying next to two of her friends who were already dead from gunshot wounds to the head.

Another of her guests was seriously wounded, and the hair stylist – only slightly injured – dialled 911.

Police said at the time that they believed the two suspects knew about Jennifer’s cash business – and had set out to rob her.

She reportedly had marijuana with a street value of $10,000 in her apartment at the time of her death.

CBS News reported in 2002 that separate juries had found Sean Salley, then 30, of Brooklyn, and Andre “Dre” Smith, then 31, of Irvington, New Jersey, guilty on three counts of second-degree murder, four counts of robbery and two weapons counts.