"So much compassion for everything in the world" – Sandra beyond Last House

Although this blog is intended primarily to bring together the evidence to show that Sandra Peabody was severely abused during the production of The Last House on the Left, I very much also want to show a side of Sandra that is often overlooked: what she did after leaving acting. Her final on-screen role was as Bird in Teenage Hitchhikers, which hit drive-ins in 1974. I haven't seen it, but I've always been glad that her farewell to exploitation (and indeed to film acting) was in a silly comedy where she wasn't being brutalised on-screen or off.

After that, she made a move into the production side of things, with a number of television shows to her name. Perhaps most notably, she was executive producer (and a lot more besides) on the Oregon-based children's show Popcorn, which ran from 1985 to 1992 and won Peabody an Emmy, among other awards. I'll be devoting an entire post to that one at some point, as it is a remarkable story and one full of Sandra's deeply admirable devotion of her professional life to creating exactly the safe, supportive spaces she had been denied as a young actor.

For the last quarter-century, Sandra has worked as a talent agent and acting coach, showing a strong interest in working with young people. She has drawn on the Meisner technique (behaving truthfully under imaginary circumstances) she learned in her youth from Sanford Meisner himself, and is still giving classes today, even though now into her late seventies. I have chosen not to identify the institution at which she now works; although she does not conceal her involvement, nor does she make a show of publicising it, so I would like to allow her to maintain the peace which she seems to have found in that role.

Some of Peabody's pupils have gone on to professional acting careers. One of these is Alicia Lagano, who among her many roles has appeared as Cristina Castelli in All About Us and Selena in The Client List. Sandra had this to say in 2012 when asked by The Oregonian for her memories of Lagano's early promise:

"She had so much compassion for everything in the world. 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."

The appreciation was mutual, with Lagano calling Peabody "a great teacher" and "so honest". But look at Sandra's quote there. She praises Lagano first of all for her compassion. Then she goes on to note her openness and realness, and her willingness to be vulnerable. I find that profoundly moving: here we have a woman who was treated by David Hess with the very opposite of compassion, who had her vulnerability and openness exploited for abuse. She is nevertheless encouraging those things safely in her own student.

Moral courage is defined as having the strength to stand up for one's ethical beliefs regardless of adversity. That is exactly what Sandra Peabody displays here. As we will see, it is not the only example of this throughout her life.