Sandra Peabody

Peabody began her career as a teen actress. In the mid-1960s, she made her debut appearance in Bob O'Donnell's faith-based film that delved into drug abuse called Misfits (1965). It was released into churches of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The film was produced by a company in the New York area and she got the part after the lead actress was unable to commit to filming after becoming sick with an ailment.[3]

She was mostly cast in low-budget drive-in films that were being shot locally in Florida such as Luke Moberly's now-lost mystery film The Horse Killer (1966), which Peabody stated that was "a mystery, where these incidents were happening and they were trying to find this weird guy who was doing it. I was playing the girlfriend, and we had a lot of scenes riding horses and that sort of thing."[4][5]

In 1970, Peabody had a supporting role in Robert Kalfin's Off-Broadway production Tarot[6] which ran at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.[7] Additionally, she began to appear on television in commercials and on the two soap operas All My Children and As the World Turns in supporting roles.

Following her appearances in Miami productions, Peabody subsequently moved to New York in pursuit of more acting opportunities and for school.

In pursuit of a broader range of acting opportunities, Peabody moved from the Miami area to New York City. She responded to a casting notice in the trade publication Backstage for a film under the working title Night of Vengeance.

Peabody revealed that she had to film the lake scene for Last House numerous times.[8]

She was originally asked to audition for the supporting role of Phyllis Stone. After meeting with producer Sean S. Cunningham, she was cast in the role of the then scripted blonde seventeen-year-old protagonist Mari Collingwood.[1]

The project was originally planned to be a hardcore pornographic horror film, but the filmmakers promised her that would be changed to just focus on the horror elements. It would ultimately be released under the title The Last House on the Left,[9][10] a loose remake of Ingmar Bergman's The Virgin Spring (1960).

Craven thought highly of Peabody, describing her as "pretty" and "plucky," but acknowledged she lacked the confidence required for the gritty shoot.[11] The film was a critical and commercial success, earning more than $3 million at the American box office[12] and her performance was generally met with positive reviews.[13][14]

Peabody would ultimately detest the film. During a cast screening, Peabody brought her mother to watch the film with her, and unhappy with what she was seeing, she ultimately walked out.[15] She attests that while she was horrified while filming it, viewing it from a modern lens it is likely seen as a "funny film."

The Last House on the Left was a difficult production for Peabody. The film did not have a complete script at the time of filming, and Peabody was in an extremely vulnerable mental state due to the lack of preparation for her scenes. She has expressed contempt towards her overall performance.[17] Peabody spent a lot of time on the set with Craven, who often encouraged her throughout filming the torture, humiliation, and rape scenes.

She endured an excessive amount of abuse from the lead actors David A. Hess and Marc Sheffler throughout the shoot.[17][18]

Sheffler, who portrayed Junior, revealed in an interview that he grabbed Peabody, held her over a cliff, and threatened to throw her off if she didn't reach the level of desperation needed for the scene, stating "She wasn’t getting the scene. She wasn’t at the anxiety level that she needed to be. So, we’d done it I don’t know how many times … everybody was getting annoyed. So, I said to Wes, 'Give me a minute with her.' What I did was... you can’t see it in the shot but I took her over to the cliff, and I put her over the cliff and just grabbed her and said, ‘If you don’t get this fucking scene right now, I’m going to drop you and Wes will shoot it, and we’ll get a different scene, but it’ll work because you’ll be fucking mangled.”[19]

Additionally, method actor Hess singled her out from the rest of the cast and treated her differently than female co-stars Lucy Grantham and Jeramie Rain. Peabody stated that he would chase after her with a knife at night and that she genuinely thought he was a serial killer at some point in his life.[17] Hess revealed that before shooting the rape scene of her character, that he started roughly grabbing her breasts and threatened to legitimately rape her during the filming of the scene.[11][20] During this particular shot, assistant director Yvonne Hannemann described it as an upsetting shoot with her in tears and walking off the set.[11]

Peabody would later have a bit part in Case of the Full Moon Murders (1972). It was filmed in Miami, Florida, and was made by a majority of Last House's crew, being directed by producer Cunningham and starring her costar Fred J. Lincoln.

Chuck Vincent cast her as Anna Reed in the X-rated erotic-horror film Voices of Desire (1972).[21]

In 1973, she was cast under a film titled The Seven Deadly Sins. It would ultimately be renamed Massage Parlor Murders!. It had a stint in grindhouse theaters before falling into obscurity and becoming a lost film. It was restored by company Vinegar Syndrome, and released on DVD and Blu-ray in 2013.[22] Her next role was Olga in the Tina Russell and Harry Reems led The Filthiest Show in Town (1973).

Peabody returned to acting on stage when was cast as Minnie Oakley in Jay Harnick's musical comedy Annie Get Your Gun, from 1973 to 1974 alongside Barbara Eden and John Bennett Perry.[23] Jonathan Takiff of Philadelphia Daily News stated, "Clinched up in a shapeless bag of a dress, carrying on in a raggle taggle performing style, Sandra Peabody is totally believable as adolescent hick from the sticks. Which is why, obviously, she was selected for the role from a literal army of teenage competitors." While her character was written as a teenager, Peabody was 25 years old during the production and stated, "Even the director thought I was a kid, he never found out the truth until I refused to sign a contract which called for an accompanying guardian. Looking young does have its disadvantages, when I first left school (Carnegie-Mellon, in Pittsburg) and started hitting the casting calls in New York, I couldn't get acting jobs for characters my age. So then I got smart, and signed with a children's agent."[24]

In 1974, Peabody had a non-speaking cameo role in the horror film Legacy of Satan.[25] The following year, Sandra starred in Claude Goddard's comedy crime film Teenage Hitchhikers, which was about a couple of young hitchhikers who embark on a cross country trip in search of freedom, excitement and independence. In a review for Los Angeles Times, Linda Gross[26] stated that Peabody's performance was "ingenious."

In 1975, Peabody worked as the script supervisor for the exploitation film Video Vixens, in which she is credited for the script continuity and featured her Last House costar Steve Miner as the assistant editor.

Subsequently, Sandra began to distance herself from the exploitative films that she was becoming known for and began to transition into children's programming. In 1983, she joined Mary Lee Fones and Karen Kalergis in an effort to bring child friendly content to cable systems beyond prominent film industry locations such as Los Angeles and New York.[27] The same year, Peabody created the half-hour children's program Get Moving.[28] In 1990, Sandra wrote and produced the television series Where in the World. The series lasted until 1995.[29]

In 2001, Peabody wrote and produced the educational series Zone In.[30] She created more entries in 2007.[31] Peabody was Alicia Lagano's acting coach and in an interview stated:

"She was open and affected by everything, which is a great element for an actor to have, that kind of feeling and ability to relate to things and be so open at such a young age. She was willing to try everything, to throw herself on her face. Some people worry about their image and what they look like and what people will think of them. She was just so open and real."[32]

As of 2020, Peabody is reported to be an acting coach and agent in the Portland, Oregon and Los Angeles, California areas.[33]