Sandahl Bergman

Sandahl Bergman (born November 14, 1951) is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Valeria in the film Conan the Barbarian (1982), for which she won a Golden Globe and a Saturn Award.

Sandahl Bergman
Bergman in 2011
Born	November 14, 1951 Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.
Education	Shawnee Mission East High School
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1970–2003
Height	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Spouse(s)	Josh Taylor (divorced)
Children	1

Early life and Broadway

Bergman was born in Kansas City, Missouri. She graduated from Shawnee Mission East High School in Prairie Village, Kansas. She grew up 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) tall, athletic, and statuesque.[1][2]

In her 20s, she moved to New York City and appeared in a number of Broadway shows, catching the eye of choreographer Bob Fosse, who cast her as a replacement dancer in Pippin. She had a secondary lead in the stage version of the film Gigi in 1973, and later appeared in Mack & Mabel, and as Judy in the renowned "new New York cast" of A Chorus Line (when many of the original actors left the show in 1977).[3] She was cast again by Fosse in his critically acclaimed 1978 dance concert/musical Dancin', which featured many of the top dancers on Broadway at the time.[4]

Film and television career

Bergman's movie career began in 1978 with a small role in the TV film How to Pick Up Girls. She followed that in 1979 with the Bob Fosse film All That Jazz, in which she was a featured performer in the "Take Off With Us" sequence.[5] In the 1980 movie Xanadu, she appears as one of the nine immortal Muses during the opening song "I'm Alive" by ELO, as well as the final title number of "Xanadu".

Bergman's participation in Xanadu also led indirectly to her eviction from her apartment in New York and subsequent relocation to California. She had been subletting her apartment in New York in defiance of a clause in her agreement with her landlord, and during her four months in California for filming, he became aware of the situation. Bergman has said she did not return to New York, instead having friends pack and ship her belongings to her.

Her best-known role was playing Valeria opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1982 film Conan the Barbarian. She won the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year - Actress for her role in the film. Because no stunt women could be found to match her size, she learned to do all her own stunt work. She commented on the experience, "It was tough. I nearly lost a finger. Arnold smashed his head against a rock. But that was nothing compared to what the stunt men went through."

In 1985, she played a different character, Queen Gedren, in another Conanesque film, Red Sonja. She was offered the title role, but asked to play the villainess instead.[6] After that, she appeared in a series of low-budget films, such as 1987's Hell Comes to Frogtown. Her most recent work was in 2003, when at the age of 52 she appeared as a dancer in the film version of The Singing Detective. Other appearances include a lunar base officer in the movie Airplane II: The Sequel, the music video "Heavy Metal Love" by the band Helix and the Fred Olen Ray film Possessed by the Night, and guest appearances on television, such as Hart to Hart and a dance sequence choreographed by Stanley Donen in an episode of Moonlighting.

Bergman worked as an instructor for the FIRM series of exercise videos in the 1980s.[7]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1974	Mame	Dancer	Uncredited
1979	All That Jazz	Principal Dancer
1980	Xanadu	Muse 1
1982	Conan the Barbarian	Valeria	Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress Saturn Award for Best Actress
1982	Airplane II: The Sequel	Officer #1
1984	She	She
1984	Getting Physical	Nadine Cawley	Television movie
1985	The Ferret	Chandra	Television movie
1985	Red Sonja	Queen Gedren	Nominated—Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actress
1986	Stewardess School	Wanda Polanski
1987	Programmed to Kill	Samira
1987	Kandyland	Harlow Divine
1988	Hell Comes to Frogtown	Spangle
1991	Raw Nerve	Gloria Freedman
1992	In the Arms of a Killer	Nurse Henninger	Television movie
1992	Loving Lulu	Lulu
1992	Revenge on the Highway	Python	Television movie
1994	Lipstick Camera	Lilly Miller
1994	TekWar: TekJustice	Valkyrie	Television movie
1994	Inner Sanctum II	Sharon Reed
1994	Night of the Archer	Marla Miles
1995	Ice Cream Man	Marion Cassera
1996	The Assault	Helen
1997	Sorceress II: The Temptress	Virginia
2003	The Singing Detective	Dancer

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1970–1973	The Dean Martin Comedy World	Golddigger	50 episodes
1978	How to Pick Up Girls!	Blond jogger	TV movie
1982	Hart to Hart	Miranda	Episode: "From the Depths of My Heart"
1986	Moonlighting	Female Dancer	Episode: "Big Man on Mulberry Street"
1988	Dirty Dancing	Delia	Episode: "Save the Last Dance for Me"
1989	Cheers	Judy Marlowe	Episode: "Send in the Crane"
1989	Hard Time on Planet Earth	Danielle Spencer	Episode: "Battle of the Sexes"
1990	Freddy's Nightmares	Ginger 'Tracker' Morgan	2 episodes
1990	Designing Women	Davida Daniels	Episode: "Nowhere to Run To"
1991	Swamp Thing	Sienna	Episode: "Tremors of the Heart"
1992	Dark Justice	Meredith	Episode: "Lead Rain"
1993	Murder, She Wrote	Sgt. Daisy Kenny	Episode: "The Petrified Florist"
1994	Silk Stalkings	Sgt. Steele	Episode: "The Scarlet Shadow"
1994	Under Suspicion	Petrella Gideon	Episode: "Serial Killer - Part 1"
1999	Sliders	Lead Female Dancer	Episode: "The Java Jive"

References

1. March 22, G. Allen Johnson (March 22, 2019). "'She' is an ode to butt-kicking '80s action star Sandahl Bergman". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
2. Child, Ben (March 11, 2020). "Max von Sydow could transform the trashiest pulp fantasy flick into a cultural touchstone". The Guardian. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
3. Profile, ibdb.com; accessed August 15, 2015.
4. Brunner, Jeryl (March 19, 2018). "Ann Reinking on Bob Fosse and an Epic Event Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Dancin'". Parade.
5. King, Susan (April 4, 2019). "Chita Rivera, Carol Burnett and others talk about working with Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon". Los Angeles Times.
6. "Comic Book Movies: Red Sonja". Filmwerk.co.uk.
7. Krucoff, Carol (March 5, 1991). "Battle the Bulge with Home Exercise Videos". The Washington Post.

External links

• Sandahl Bergman at IMDb
• Sandahl Bergman at AllMovie