Sarah Douglas

For the pen name of Australian writer Sara Warneke, see Sara Douglass.

Sarah Douglas
Born	12 December 1952 (1952-12-12) (age 58) Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire, England
Years active	1966–present
Spouse	Richard LeParmentier (1981 – 1984) (divorced)

Sarah Douglas (born 12 December 1952) is an English actress. She is perhaps best known for playing the Kryptonian supervillain Ursa in the first two Superman movies (1978 and 1980), and for her role as Pamela Lynch in the 1980s primetime drama series Falcon Crest (1983–85).

Biography

Early life

Douglas was born in Stratford-Upon-Avon, Warwickshire, the second daughter of Beryl (née Smith), a physiotherapist who often worked upon RSC actors, and of Edward Douglas, a career member of the Royal Air Force.^[1][2] Having been educated locally at Alcester Grammar School, she then trained with the National Youth Theatre and the Rose Bruford College, before turning professional by working on several productions alongside well-known British actors such as Roy Dotrice and Jon Pertwee.

Career

Eventually, Douglas's career took her in front of the camera with a small appearance in the 1973 film The Final Programme (alternatively known as The Last Days of Man on Earth ). After this, Douglas became known to British television audiences in the 1970s by appearing in The Howerd Confessions, The Inheritors, Space: 1999 and Return of the Saint, and appeared in the films The People That Time Forgot (for which she was nominated for a Saturn Award), and the controversial and rarely seen film The Brute, in which she played an abused wife.

Douglas' first major role was that of Ursa in Superman (1978) and Superman II (1980) having beaten a staggering 600 actresses to the part. In 1984, she played another fantasy villainess in Conan the Destroyer as the evil Queen Taramis. Douglas also continued to appear on television, and was a series regular in the short-lived British sitcom Thundercloud in 1979. Throughout the 1980s, she went on to appear in a variety of guest roles in UK and US series such as The Professionals, Bergerac, Hotel, Sledge Hammer!, and Remington Steele. However, her most prominent television role is that of Pamela Lynch in the primetime soap opera Falcon Crest, which she played for two seasons from 1983–85. She also played another "Pamela" in the 1984 television miniseries V: The Final Battle.

In the 1990s, she returned to science fiction, guest-starring in the Babylon 5 first season episode "Deathwalker" (1994), and in the Stargate SG-1 second season two-part episode "The Tok'ra". Douglas has also appeared in a variety of genre films, including Solarbabies, The Return of Swamp Thing, The Stepford Husbands, Beastmaster 2, and Return of the Living Dead 3. She also voiced characters in episodes of several animated TV series, including Iron Man, The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, Superman: The Animated Series, and Batman of the Future.

Recent appearances

In 2003, Douglas returned to the UK in order to accept an invitation to appear across a nationwide tour of Hamlet playing alongside actress Emily Lloyd. The following year, she completed a run in London's West End in the play Roast Beef playing the role of Clytemnestra. Also in 2004, Douglas completed an audio commentary for the Special Edition DVD of Conan the Destroyer.

In 2006, she performed in the audio drama Sapphire and Steel: The Mystery of the Missing Hour alongside David Warner. Also in 2006, she was reunited with many of her Superman co-stars in Los Angeles as the new version of Superman II (known as Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut) was released with previously unseen footage. At the same time, a new Superman DVD boxset was released, featuring an interview with Douglas.

Douglas went on to appear in the 2007 Sci-Fi Pictures original film Gryphon, playing the mother of Jonathan LaPaglia's character.

In 2008, Douglas worked on further audio productions, and reunited with David Warner for a new BBC Audio CD entitled The Brightonomicon. She has also participated in the new audio recordings for Stargate Atlantis. Another 2008 screen credit was as a cancer-stricken transsexual in the BBC daytime series Doctors.

In 2009, Douglas completed work on a series of radio plays for the BBC. The first to air on BBC Radio 4 was Cry Babies, in which she performed alongside Alex Jennings. The play, written by film critic Kim Newman, was aired on 9 March 2009. A second play, with Derek Jacobi, aired on 13 March 2009 on Radio 4.

Douglas then appeared in the TV movie Witchville which premiered on SyFy on 22 May 2010.

In June 2010, Douglas voiced the character of Professor Meadows in the video game "Blood of The Cybermen", part of the Doctor Who: The Adventure Games series which was made available for free download from the official Doctor Who website. She is also credited as the voice of 'The Entity' in the third game, simply named "TARDIS". She plays Jones, a class 14 super computer, in the latest adventure game, "Shadows of the Vashta Nerada".

Douglas has also voiced a recurring role on the upcoming animated series of Green Lantern, due to air in 2012. She is also involved with a sci-fi audio series entitled The Flashback, which has been in production on both sides of the Atlantic. Douglas's latest genre movie, Strippers Vs Werewolves, is currently in production. The film co-stars Robert Englund, Steven Berkoff, Adele Silva and Billy Murray.

References

1. ^ "Sarah Douglas Biography (1952-)". filmreference.com. NetIndustries, LLC. http://www.filmreference.com/film/87/Sarah-Douglas.html. Retrieved 2010-05-24. 
2. ^ "Sarah Douglas Biography". Yahoo! Movies. AEC One Stop Group, Inc. http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800050033/bio. Retrieved 2010-05-24. 

External links

• Official homepage
• Sarah Douglas at the Internet Movie Database
• Sarah Douglas at the TCM Movie Database
• Sarah Douglas at AllRovi

Persondata
Name	Douglas, Sarah
Alternative names
Short description	Actress
Date of birth	12 December 1952
Place of birth	Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire, England
Date of death
Place of death