Sarah Douglas was 26-year-old when she played Ursa in the motion picture 'Superman' (1978). In 1980, Sarah reprised the role in 'Superman II'. 'Sussex Life' reported in 2008, "Sarah beat more than 600 actresses to the 'Superman' role, although it was something of a miracle because her audition was postponed eight times. When she did finally audition, she said she was so tired and cranky it came across in the read-through, and, ironically, it was just the mean streak the casting directors were looking for."
In an one-on-one with Barry Freiman as part of the 2005 Cult TV Superhero Celebration Expo, Sarah Douglas disclosed there was a reason her screen test was not on the 'Superman: The Movie' Special Edition DVD, "My screen test wasn't there because I didn't screen test. I didn't screen test for it. The others were on there. I was busy doing another movie called 'The People That Time Forgot' at the time and I had a series of interviews, and I certainly did a little scene in the small office, but I didn't test for it."
Between 1983 and 1985, Sarah, then in her early 30s, played Queen Taramis in 'Conan the Destroyer' and as Pamela in both the TV mini-series 'V: The Final Battle' and prime time soap, 'Falcon Crest'. Producer Dino De Laurentiis reportedly had Sarah in mind for the part of "the terrifying sorceress". Sarah Douglas told Associated Press, "I turned down 'Conan' six times. I said, 'Oh, no, not another evil queen flashing her eyes and sucking in her cheeks!' But then I heard that Grace Jones was going to be in the picture, that intrigued me. I had read about how she crashed in and out of England and all the wild things she has done. I responded to the challenge."
"V" referred to visitors (or reptilians from another world in human skin and were allergic to red-dust chemical except in warmer climate). The 6-hour sequel, 'The Final Battle' shown in May 1984 attracted an estimated 100 million viewers. It was, as the narrator observed, "the greatest event mankind has ever witnessed." 'V' told a tale about those thousands of visitors who had landed on Earth in 50 motherships measured 3 miles across and all positioned around the world's key urban centers.
NBC felt compelled to preempt 'Knight Rider' with the "epic the world has been waiting for - man's first alien encounter." 'V' (reportedly costing NBC $23 million to make) and the sequel 'V: The Final Battle' were monster hits, winning around 40 shares of the audience when it went on air. The visitors came to Earth with the intention of colonizing the planet in order to take control of Earth's water supply and to use humans as slaves and for food. David Handler of 'Newspaper Enterprise Association' noted, "The mini-series was something fresh. After all, the future of mankind was at stake."
In 1961, 'People' magazine reported, "at age 9, Sarah Douglas was cast as Oberon in a school production of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' in her hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon. But she was demoted to third fairy because of a schoolroom prank. At 14 (in 1966), she wanted to join the National Youth Theatre of England and was selected from the 3,500 other kids who tried out."
In 2017, Sarah Douglas appeared in the time travel indie film, 'Displacement', about second chances, missed opportunities and fate. In the interview with Jeff Fountain, Sarah Douglas recounted, "I did my first film, called 'The Final Program', and that was my very first job. Then it just went on, it was splendid, my 20s were fabulous, I just assumed it was always going to be like that, believe me, I'm in my 60s, I know it’s not always like that but back then it was just one thing after another and I took it like it was the most normal thing in the world."
In a separate interview with 'StarryMag', Sarah Douglas told Lisa Steinberg, "I arrived in Hollywood in 1982 and I was already 30-year-old when I came to LA. I look back now and boy oh boy would I have done things a little bit differently. I missed a lot of opportunities because I didn’t really grab them. We think that we have all the time in the world and we haven’t. The truth is it rushes by. So, this film ('Displacement') does resonate with me because stuff happens. My God it happens! And you have to really take advantage and take notice.
"You have to be really observant and not sit back. I certainly sat back in the very beginning because it was all happening around me. It was all a whirlwind when I arrived in LA. I came out and I was on 'Falcon Crest' for a couple of years. I had never worked like that because I had worked in England and suddenly you are on a nighttime soap and you are working two or three days every seven days and on my days off I wasn't really filling my time. I was sitting by a pool loving being in Hollywood.
"I certainly don’t regret anything. I would just have done things slightly different … I'm relatively new to social media. I’ve done Facebook since the beginning, but how different my career and my life had been if there were social media. I watch you all work it all the time. Everybody is working it and selling themselves. We’re all sort of commodities now and it was different when I started. Firstly, any attention you got was from the press and to get that press you had to be noticed.
"Fortunately, I was lucky to get enormous opportunities and to travel around the world for 'Superman'. But I was selling 'Superman'. I didn’t sell me. I didn’t understand about selling me. And also you didn't sell you. You didn't sell yourself as a commodity. Now it seems like everybody is a commodity. Whether you are on Instagram eating an ice cream and promoting that, everything is an opportunity and everybody seems to be selling themselves all the time.
"I'm not overly comfortable with that, but it's a different world … It's a different world. I can't say I would have done things much differently because I can't say there is much differently I could do except missing out on opportunities … This movie ('Displacement') says to grab every moment and live every moment! It's a good little movie and as I said it has lots in there. It's a mind bend of reality, what's going on and what is real and what is fantasy. It's kind of like living in Hollywood because I never figured out what was real and what was fantasy."
Sarah Douglas also made the observation, "I think female superheroes are marvelous … Back in the day, there wasn’t anybody … My character Ursa was sort of the first one out there and I completely, totally adore and am so grateful to have had that opportunity … It's a different world and so much fun. I’m excited for girls and women everywhere that they have these wonderful people to look up to. There is a lot going on within the wonderful world of superpowers and they are coming at you from every direction. I find it very exciting.
"It's 40 years. I looked at something and found the call sheet. It was in my scrapbook that had lovingly been put together by my family. There was my call sheet from 40 years (ago). It was April 1977 of my first day on set with Marlon Brando. We’re still doing it! People are still writing, talking and wanting to hear about 'Superman' ... I just think it would be wonderful and I would be so honored to be asked to be in something like that ('Smallville' or 'Supergirl') with all this new generation of fans and people watching who maybe don't know me from 'Superman'. Maybe they know Ursa, but they don’t know me as Sarah Douglas. It would be nice to introduce myself to them again."
'People' magazine reported Sarah Douglas was cast to play the abrasive secretary/chief of security, Pamela Lynch, on 'Falcon Crest' because of her performance in the Phantom Zone on 'Superman'. As told to 'United Press International' in 1984, "American prime time TV series have invented an entirely new category of roles for British actresses and I must give credit to Joan (Collins) for her marvelously malevolent part in 'Dynasty'. I play more of an outright villainess than bitch as Pamela Lynch in 'Falcon Crest'."
It was understood, upper-class English accent allowed British women to be more convincing as back-biting, vengeful vixens than Americans because "the really important thing is our turn of phrase. A British woman's way with words makes her more cynical than her American counterpart. We get away with murder when we deliver bitchy lines with a wry smile and a theatrically trained voice.
"The delivery disconcerts the audience because they never know whether we quite mean what we're saying. Most of the time, of course, I very much do mean what I've said, and so does the character of Pamela. I'm basically trashy, but the accent helps because Americans can't possibly believe they've heard what I've said, especially if it is wickedly racy. Historically, a certain class of English family has made a point of rearing female children to be frightfully British in manner.
"It is most clearly seen in the Royal family - the stiff upper lip. Maggie Thatcher is another good example of the Englishwoman's aloofness and concealment of emotion. Actually, I'm quite well-bred. I was brought up in the English tradition of ever-so-nice circumstances, taught to be a thoroughgoing lady who finds it unnecessary to reveal her true feelings.
"Things are slowly loosening up for British women, thank God. I can be obnoxious. I know because my husband (at the time) tells me I can. But like many other Englishwomen I've become bored with being a goody two shoes. However, to this day (in 1984), when I say or do something outrageously shocking, my mother explains to friends, 'Oh, Sarah is, after all, an actress!'"
As Pamela Lynch, Sarah Douglas stated at the time, "They wanted me to sign a five-year contract for 'Falcon Crest,' but I refused … I had taken the series thinking it would be episodic, but they were using me every day. We worked it out so I spent four days a week in Mexico City on 'Conan' and three days in Burbank for the series." Head writer, Bob McCullough acknowledged, "But she was so good that she catapulted beyond her character."
In later interview, Sarah recalled, "They cooked up a smouldering feud between me and Gina Lollobrigida, even though I barely knew her." Sarah also told Thomas J. Pucher in 2001, "I felt that they lost their direction with me, a little by the second season (1984-85). They just didn’t know what to do with Pamela Lynch after it was established that the viewing audience didn't like the plot line with the cartel!"
In an one-on-one with Barry Freiman as part of the 2005 Cult TV Superhero Celebration Expo, Sarah Douglas disclosed there was a reason her screen test was not on the 'Superman: The Movie' Special Edition DVD, "My screen test wasn't there because I didn't screen test. I didn't screen test for it. The others were on there. I was busy doing another movie called 'The People That Time Forgot' at the time and I had a series of interviews, and I certainly did a little scene in the small office, but I didn't test for it."
Between 1983 and 1985, Sarah, then in her early 30s, played Queen Taramis in 'Conan the Destroyer' and as Pamela in both the TV mini-series 'V: The Final Battle' and prime time soap, 'Falcon Crest'. Producer Dino De Laurentiis reportedly had Sarah in mind for the part of "the terrifying sorceress". Sarah Douglas told Associated Press, "I turned down 'Conan' six times. I said, 'Oh, no, not another evil queen flashing her eyes and sucking in her cheeks!' But then I heard that Grace Jones was going to be in the picture, that intrigued me. I had read about how she crashed in and out of England and all the wild things she has done. I responded to the challenge."
"V" referred to visitors (or reptilians from another world in human skin and were allergic to red-dust chemical except in warmer climate). The 6-hour sequel, 'The Final Battle' shown in May 1984 attracted an estimated 100 million viewers. It was, as the narrator observed, "the greatest event mankind has ever witnessed." 'V' told a tale about those thousands of visitors who had landed on Earth in 50 motherships measured 3 miles across and all positioned around the world's key urban centers.
NBC felt compelled to preempt 'Knight Rider' with the "epic the world has been waiting for - man's first alien encounter." 'V' (reportedly costing NBC $23 million to make) and the sequel 'V: The Final Battle' were monster hits, winning around 40 shares of the audience when it went on air. The visitors came to Earth with the intention of colonizing the planet in order to take control of Earth's water supply and to use humans as slaves and for food. David Handler of 'Newspaper Enterprise Association' noted, "The mini-series was something fresh. After all, the future of mankind was at stake."
In 1961, 'People' magazine reported, "at age 9, Sarah Douglas was cast as Oberon in a school production of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' in her hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon. But she was demoted to third fairy because of a schoolroom prank. At 14 (in 1966), she wanted to join the National Youth Theatre of England and was selected from the 3,500 other kids who tried out."
In 2017, Sarah Douglas appeared in the time travel indie film, 'Displacement', about second chances, missed opportunities and fate. In the interview with Jeff Fountain, Sarah Douglas recounted, "I did my first film, called 'The Final Program', and that was my very first job. Then it just went on, it was splendid, my 20s were fabulous, I just assumed it was always going to be like that, believe me, I'm in my 60s, I know it’s not always like that but back then it was just one thing after another and I took it like it was the most normal thing in the world."
In a separate interview with 'StarryMag', Sarah Douglas told Lisa Steinberg, "I arrived in Hollywood in 1982 and I was already 30-year-old when I came to LA. I look back now and boy oh boy would I have done things a little bit differently. I missed a lot of opportunities because I didn’t really grab them. We think that we have all the time in the world and we haven’t. The truth is it rushes by. So, this film ('Displacement') does resonate with me because stuff happens. My God it happens! And you have to really take advantage and take notice.
"You have to be really observant and not sit back. I certainly sat back in the very beginning because it was all happening around me. It was all a whirlwind when I arrived in LA. I came out and I was on 'Falcon Crest' for a couple of years. I had never worked like that because I had worked in England and suddenly you are on a nighttime soap and you are working two or three days every seven days and on my days off I wasn't really filling my time. I was sitting by a pool loving being in Hollywood.
"I certainly don’t regret anything. I would just have done things slightly different … I'm relatively new to social media. I’ve done Facebook since the beginning, but how different my career and my life had been if there were social media. I watch you all work it all the time. Everybody is working it and selling themselves. We’re all sort of commodities now and it was different when I started. Firstly, any attention you got was from the press and to get that press you had to be noticed.
"Fortunately, I was lucky to get enormous opportunities and to travel around the world for 'Superman'. But I was selling 'Superman'. I didn’t sell me. I didn’t understand about selling me. And also you didn't sell you. You didn't sell yourself as a commodity. Now it seems like everybody is a commodity. Whether you are on Instagram eating an ice cream and promoting that, everything is an opportunity and everybody seems to be selling themselves all the time.
"I'm not overly comfortable with that, but it's a different world … It's a different world. I can't say I would have done things much differently because I can't say there is much differently I could do except missing out on opportunities … This movie ('Displacement') says to grab every moment and live every moment! It's a good little movie and as I said it has lots in there. It's a mind bend of reality, what's going on and what is real and what is fantasy. It's kind of like living in Hollywood because I never figured out what was real and what was fantasy."
Sarah Douglas also made the observation, "I think female superheroes are marvelous … Back in the day, there wasn’t anybody … My character Ursa was sort of the first one out there and I completely, totally adore and am so grateful to have had that opportunity … It's a different world and so much fun. I’m excited for girls and women everywhere that they have these wonderful people to look up to. There is a lot going on within the wonderful world of superpowers and they are coming at you from every direction. I find it very exciting.
"It's 40 years. I looked at something and found the call sheet. It was in my scrapbook that had lovingly been put together by my family. There was my call sheet from 40 years (ago). It was April 1977 of my first day on set with Marlon Brando. We’re still doing it! People are still writing, talking and wanting to hear about 'Superman' ... I just think it would be wonderful and I would be so honored to be asked to be in something like that ('Smallville' or 'Supergirl') with all this new generation of fans and people watching who maybe don't know me from 'Superman'. Maybe they know Ursa, but they don’t know me as Sarah Douglas. It would be nice to introduce myself to them again."
'People' magazine reported Sarah Douglas was cast to play the abrasive secretary/chief of security, Pamela Lynch, on 'Falcon Crest' because of her performance in the Phantom Zone on 'Superman'. As told to 'United Press International' in 1984, "American prime time TV series have invented an entirely new category of roles for British actresses and I must give credit to Joan (Collins) for her marvelously malevolent part in 'Dynasty'. I play more of an outright villainess than bitch as Pamela Lynch in 'Falcon Crest'."
It was understood, upper-class English accent allowed British women to be more convincing as back-biting, vengeful vixens than Americans because "the really important thing is our turn of phrase. A British woman's way with words makes her more cynical than her American counterpart. We get away with murder when we deliver bitchy lines with a wry smile and a theatrically trained voice.
"The delivery disconcerts the audience because they never know whether we quite mean what we're saying. Most of the time, of course, I very much do mean what I've said, and so does the character of Pamela. I'm basically trashy, but the accent helps because Americans can't possibly believe they've heard what I've said, especially if it is wickedly racy. Historically, a certain class of English family has made a point of rearing female children to be frightfully British in manner.
"It is most clearly seen in the Royal family - the stiff upper lip. Maggie Thatcher is another good example of the Englishwoman's aloofness and concealment of emotion. Actually, I'm quite well-bred. I was brought up in the English tradition of ever-so-nice circumstances, taught to be a thoroughgoing lady who finds it unnecessary to reveal her true feelings.
"Things are slowly loosening up for British women, thank God. I can be obnoxious. I know because my husband (at the time) tells me I can. But like many other Englishwomen I've become bored with being a goody two shoes. However, to this day (in 1984), when I say or do something outrageously shocking, my mother explains to friends, 'Oh, Sarah is, after all, an actress!'"
As Pamela Lynch, Sarah Douglas stated at the time, "They wanted me to sign a five-year contract for 'Falcon Crest,' but I refused … I had taken the series thinking it would be episodic, but they were using me every day. We worked it out so I spent four days a week in Mexico City on 'Conan' and three days in Burbank for the series." Head writer, Bob McCullough acknowledged, "But she was so good that she catapulted beyond her character."
In later interview, Sarah recalled, "They cooked up a smouldering feud between me and Gina Lollobrigida, even though I barely knew her." Sarah also told Thomas J. Pucher in 2001, "I felt that they lost their direction with me, a little by the second season (1984-85). They just didn’t know what to do with Pamela Lynch after it was established that the viewing audience didn't like the plot line with the cartel!"
