Sandra Peabody

Biography

Sandra Peabody (born January 11, 1948) is an American producer, writer, acting coach, talent agent, and retired actress. Peabody is best known for her role as Mari Collingwood in Wes Craven's directorial debut horror film The Last House on the Left (1972), as well as her subsequent career as a producer of children's programming on cable television, which earned her accolades including an Emmy Award and a CableACE Award. Peabody began her career as a teen actress in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. First appearing in the professional stage production Enter Laughing (1965) as Wanda during her senior year of high school, Peabody later forayed into acting in feature films, such as the South Florida shot films Misfit (1965) and The Horse Killer (1966). In 1966, Peabody began studying drama at Carnegie Mellon University and began training in the Meisner technique directly from acting teacher Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre. Peabody appeared on stage in The Odd Couple, Stop the World – I Want to Get Off (both 1969), the off-Broadway folk rock musical Tarot (1970), which opened at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and most notably Minnie Oakley in the musical Annie Get Your Gun (1973), starring opposite of Barbara Eden. Peabody had roles in films such as the drama film Love-In '72 (1971), the horror films Voices of Desire (1972) and Massage Parlor Murders! (1973), and the cult sex comedy Teenage Hitchhikers (1974). Peabody retired from acting by the mid-1970s and taught theatrical training for children at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts before moving to Portland, Oregon and launching a successful career in cable television as a children's television producer, beginning in 1982. Her producing and writing credits include the show Get Movin' (1982) and the award-winning series Popcorn (1984-1992).

== Early life == Sandra Lee Peabody was born on January 11, 1948, in Portland, Oregon. As a teenager, Peabody lived in Fort Lauderdale, Florida where she attended Stranahan High School. In high school, Peabody succeeded in academics, was a varsity cheerleader, and developed an interest in acting—becoming involved in school plays. Outside of school, she began to be cast in local professional theatre productions.

== Acting career ==

=== 1960s: Feature films and stage work ===

In 1964, Peabody got cast in the one-act play, Riders to the Sea, which opened at Florida State University in July. Burgeoning as a teen actress, Peabody got cast in a leading role as a drug-addicted teenager in Bob O'Donnell's religious educational film Misfit (1965), which was her feature film debut. The film was produced by a New York-based production company, and although Peabody was not the original choice for the role, she got cast after the leading actress became sick before filming began. During her senior year, Peabody was cast in another professional play called Enter Laughing (1966), as Wanda, the girlfriend of the main character. The play opened in January 1966 at the Hollywood Little Theater in Florida to favorable reviews, with her acting in the cemetery scene highlighted. Peabody subsequently portrayed Beauty in a play adaptation of Beauty and the Beast and Katie Brown in the play Calamity Jane (both in 1966). Peabody's next film role was in Luke Moberly's mystery film The Horse Killer (1966). In a retrospective interview, Peabody said she played the girlfriend. She described the film as having an unusual story and her scenes involving a lot of horseback riding.

After graduating high school in 1966, Peabody had a scholarship in dramatics to attend Florida State University. However, she decided to attend Carnegie Mellon University to study drama. In 1967, she was selected to do summer stock at the Priscilla Beach Theater in Plymouth, Massachusetts as an actress-in-training. The same year, Peabody was selected to study the Meisner technique with acting teacher Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre. In 1969, she had a role as Gwendolyn Pigeon in Neil Simon's The Odd Couple. Critic Mariruth Campbell of The Journal News described her as being a "most competent" actress. Peabody was later a part of the stage plays Celebration, Little Mary Sunshine, and Stop the World – I Want to Get Off (all in 1969).

=== 1970–1972: Breakthrough with The Last House on the Left === In 1970, Peabody had a supporting role as The Sun in the Robert Kalfin and The Rubber Duck directed Off-Broadway production Tarot, which ran at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. An experimental folk rock-mime musical based on tarot cards, it opened to a lackluster reception: a review for The New York Times describes the show as "pompous, inefficient and amateurish", although the music received praise. One of the first feature film roles Peabody signed onto in New York was the low budget sexploitation satire film The Filthiest Show in Town (1970), a parody of dating game shows. Peabody appeared in the film's fictitious commercial segments as a character named Olga. Peabody later had roles in the drama film Love-In '72 (1970) and Chuck Vincent's Manhattan-set horror film Voices of Desire (1971). Peabody's breakthrough role would occur when she got cast as the protagonist Mari Collingwood in Wes Craven's directorial debut The Last House on the Left (1972), a controversial rape and revenge horror film and a loose remake of Ingmar Bergman's The Virgin Spring (1960). Peabody responded to a casting notice for the film in the New York industry trade publication Backstage and set up an audition at producer Sean S. Cunningham's office. Craven and Cunningham originally wanted Peabody to read for the role of Phyllis (portrayed by Lucy Grantham); after they met her, they decided to cast her as Mari. Discussions had been held with prior actors cast about filming it as an X-rated film; however, by the time Peabody signed on, she was told the script was going to be rewritten as a traditional horror film and would not include pornography. By the time of filming, the script was incomplete, which Peabody reflected: "I remember once we were riding a train from New York to Westport, and somebody from the movie said to me, 'Sandra, you look like a cow that’s just been slaughtered!' I said, 'Well, that’s because I don’t really know how the script is going to be changed.' The thought of a lot of these scenes upset me, and a lot of the time, I wasn’t quite sure what was going to be done until we actually did it." Costar Fred J. Lincoln claimed that Peabody was genuinely afraid, "... she left the production after one or two days, and we had to talk her into coming back!" Peabody stated that she struggled with the sexual assault scenes in the forest. Craven recalled working with a young Peabody: "I liked Sandra Peabody a lot; I thought she was very pretty, and very plucky ... because she was a very young actress, she wasn’t nearly as confident and easygoing as Lucy was, and she had become involved in something that was very, very rough. And she hung in there. When the character was raped, she was treated very roughly, and I know Sandra said to me afterwards, 'My God ... I had the feeling they really hated me.'" Peabody had a turbulent work relationship with David Hess, whom she described as a method actor who was "trying to live his part." In a 2008 retrospective interview with writer Jason Zinoman for Vanity Fair, Hess asserted that he was very mean towards her throughout filming and that she did not have to act during the filming of her character’s rape scene: "I told her, 'I'm really going to fuck you if you don't behave yourself. They'll just let the camera run. I'm going to devastate you.' I don't think she was too happy about that." Upon release, the film was a commercial success, earning more than $2 million at the American box office. Peabody believes Craven and Cunningham succeeded with the film, given their limited resources. Besides acting in the film, she also performed her own stunts.

=== 1973–1977: Career expansion and retirement from acting ===