Sandra Peabody

Peabody was born on January 11, 1948 in Portland, Oregon, though she grew up in Miami, Florida where she pursued acting at a very young age. In the mid 1960s, Peabody made her debut appearance in the educational film that delved into drug abuse called Misfits. The film was produced by a company in the New York area and she got the part after one of the actresses was unable to commit to filming after becoming sick with an ailment. In the early 1970s, she was mostly cast in low-budget drive-in films that were being shot in Florida such as The Horse Killer (1970), which Peabody stated, "It was actually based on the true story of a man who castrated horses! It was a really bizarre story, but it wasn't like Last House, with sex or murder. It was more of 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]

In 1970, Peabody had a supporting role as The Sun in Robert Kalfin's Off-Broadway production Tarot[5] which ran at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.[6] 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.

Peabody revealed that she had to film the lake scene for Last House numerous times.[7]

She was later cast alongside Spalding Grey and Philip Baker Hall in the 1971 film Love-In 72.[8] Following her appearances in Miami productions, Peabody subsequently moved to New York in pursuit of more acting opportunities and for school.

At 24 years old, Peabody rose to international prominence when she was cast in Wes Craven's brutal and controversial 1972 rape and revenge horror film The Last House on the Left,[9][10] about two teenage girls, Mari Collingwood (played by Peabody) and Phyllis Stone (played by Lucy Grantham) who are kidnapped and brutally raped by a gang of psychotic convicts who recently escaped from prison. Returning to New York after a cross-country road trip, she was originally asked by the film makers to audition for the role of Phyllis after responding to casting notice in the trade publication Backstage. After meeting the producer Sean S. Cunningham she was chosen to play the lead, Mari.[11] Craven stated, "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 easy going as Lucy was, and she had become involved in something 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.'"[12] The film was a critical and commercial success, earning more than $3 million at the American box office[13] and her performance was generally met with positive reviews.[14][15] During one of the screenings for the cast, Peabody was watching the film with her mother and unhappy with what she was seeing, she ultimately walked out.[16] Editor Stefano Lo Verme compared Peabody's performance as Mari and the trajectory of her career to the performances of Marilyn Burns as Sally Hardesty in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode in Halloween (1978) and their subsequent line of work within the horror genre.[17]

She later starred in Case of the Full Moon Murders (1973), which 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.

Peabody was later cast in the horror films Voices of Desire (1972),[19] and Massage Parlor Murders! (1973), the latter being a grindhouse film that was released on DVD and Blu-ray in 2013.[20] Her next role was Olga in the satirical exploitation film The Filthiest Show in Town (1973).

In one of her more notable roles after The Last House on the Left, Peabody starred as Minnie in the musical comedy Annie Get Your Gun, from 1973 to 1974 alongside Barbara Eden and John Bennett Perry.[21] 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 it's disadvantages, when I first left school (Carnegie-Mellon, in Pittsburg) and started hitting the casting calls in New York, I couldn't get an acting jobs for characters my age. So then I got smart, and signed with a children's agent."[22]

In 1974, Peabody had a cameo role in the horror film Legacy of Satan.[23] The following year, Sandra starred in the comedy 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[24] stated that Peabody's performance was "ingenious."

In a 2016 editorial for the website Birth.Movies.Death., actress Barbara Crampton noted that Peabody was one of the first actresses to be labeled as a "scream queen" due to her frequent appearances in horror films, stating:

"The concept of shrieking damsels in distress has been around since the dawn of film, with The Perils of Pauline (1914) and Fay Wray clamoring at King Kong (1933), but it wasn’t until half a century later that the female protagonists of horror cinema were given the moniker of Scream Queen. The Last House on the Left star Sandra Peabody was one of the first actresses to have the title officially bestowed upon her after appearing in Wes Craven's 1972 classic."[25]

After appearing in Teenage Hitchhikers, Sandra quit acting. 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.[26]

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 2000, David A. Szulkin interviewed Peabody for his book, Wes Craven's Last House on the Left, which tells the inside story of making the film.

In 2001, Peabody wrote and produced the educational series Zone In.[30] She created more entries in 2007.[31] Peabody has appeared in several critically acclaimed horror film documentaries through archive footage such as Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film (2006) and Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy (2010).[32] 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."[33]

As of 2019, Peabody is reported to be an acting coach and agent in the Portland, Oregon and Los Angeles, California areas.[34]