Sandahl Bergman (born November 14, 1951 in Kansas City, Missouri) is an American dancer, stuntwoman, and actress who is best known for her performances in B-movies in the 1980s and 1990s.
The 5ft 10in Bergman's movie career began in 1978 with a small role in the TV film How to Pick Up Girls. She followed this in 1979 with a noted appearance as a dancer in the Bob Fosse film All That Jazz. In the 1980 movie Xanadu, she appears as a muse during the song "I'm Alive" by ELO. She is the fourth muse, although she is mistakenly listed as Muse #1 in the movie credits.
Bergman's participation in Xanadu also led indirectly to her eviction from her apartment in New York and her 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 says that she never returned to New York, instead having friends pack and ship her clothes to her. Maiocco, Diana. "archive5.html" target="_blank">Big Woman on Mulberry Street", Moonlighting Strangers, February/March 2003 (Vol. 1, Issue 5), p. 24.
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, the last ever awarded, for her role in the film. She played a different character, Queen Gedren, in another Robert E. Howard film, Red Sonja, in 1985. After that, she appeared in many undistinguished 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.
In total she has appeared in 40 different films and television programs, and has also been active on the stage, appearing in productions of A Chorus Line, among others.
Stunning & statuesque blonde dancer and actress who first set male hearts racing as the key dancer in the sexually charged "Airotica" dance sequence in All That Jazz (1979). Bergman appeared then in Xanadu (1980), before landing the role for which she is best remembered, as the never say die female warrior/thief "Valeria" in the Hyborean Age action of Conan the Barbarian (1982). The nimble Bergman was a superb Valeria and her athletic figure and dancer's grace made her a lethal force against the multitude of sword wielding villains trying to stop her and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Her two other most notable performances were firstly as the evil Queen Gedren in another adaption of a Robert E. Howard mythological story, Red Sonja (1985), with Bergman battling another tall blonde, Brigitte Nielsen! And secondly, buddying up with ex-wrestler Roddy Piper in the weird sci-fi satire Hell Comes to Frogtown (1987), in which once again Bergman puts her fighting skills to good use and she clobbers a lot of frog creatures! Bergman has appeared in about thirty films; however she's definitely at her best when demonstrating her athletic prowess!
