Sandra Prinsloo

Sandra Prinsloo (born 15 September 1947), also known as Sandra Prinzlow, is a South African actress best known internationally for her role as Kate Thompson in the 1980 film The Gods Must Be Crazy. Prinsloo has also appeared in numerous South African television, film, and stage productions.

Sandra Prinsloo
Born
Sandra Prinsloo

(1947-09-15) 15 September 1947
South Africa
EducationUniversity of Pretoria
OccupationActress

Early life and career

Prinsloo has stated that she never expected to become an actress.[1]

“I was a ballet dancer from a very early age and I remember that I occasionally ushered at the Breytenbach Theatre in Pretoria when I was in high school. That’s the first time I came into contact with professional stage acting, but I never thought I’d be an actress . . . . I think I was far too shy in those days to ever think I could be an actress. So it wasn’t like I had this great big burning passion to become an actress, not at all. I preferred an academic life, in a way. When I went to university, I thought that was going to be what I was going to do”.[1]

Prinsloo matriculated from the Afrikaanse Hoër Meisieskool and then completed her B.A. honours in drama at the University of Pretoria.[1] Soon after, she became a member of the Performing Arts Council Transvaal acting company.[1] “One night we were performing and it was as if something absolutely magical happened. It was as if a golden net was cast down. Everything was magical that evening and everybody felt it in the cast ... It was something enchanting that happens in the exchange of the energy between the audience and the actors”.[1]

Prinsloo has said that after that night, she realised that acting was her calling.[1]

Film career

In addition to her well-known role in The Gods Must Be Crazy, Prinsloo has had major roles in Target of an Assassin (1979), Quest for Love (1988), Die Prins van Pretoria (1992), Soweto Green (1995), 'n Paw Paw Vir My Darling (2015), Twee Grade van Moord (2016).[2]

Television career

Prinsloo was in the original cast of Egoli: Place of Gold, South Africa's first soap opera.[3] For many years, she hosted her own talk show, RaakPraat met Sandra, on South Africa television.[4][5] She has also conducted a series of interviews with personalities and celebrities for South African TV, Sandra Op 'n Drafstap.[6]

Prinsloo has acted in a number of South African television series and movies throughout her career, including Erfsondes (2012); Hartland (2011); Known Gods (2005); Saints, Sinners, and Settlers (1999); and Konings (1991) among others.[2]

Theatre career

Prinsloo has performed in more than 100 different productions, often playing leading roles in works by South African and international dramatists.[1]

In 1985, Prinsloo and fellow actor John Kani caused a South African audience walk-out when performing the play Miss Julie by August Strindberg.[7] In the title role, Prinsloo played a white woman seducing a black man. The play marked the first on-stage occurrence of a black man kissing a white woman under the Apartheid regime.[8]

The play's producer, Bobby Heaney, speculated that the walk-out was "part of a well planned campaign by conservative whites".[7] Both Kani and Prinsloo had to be escorted into the parking lot after each performance of Miss Julie, as there was fear that the actors would be attacked by "enraged right-wingers".[9] Prinsloo reportedly received obscene hate mail and both received death threats.[9]

When interviewed in 2014 for the 21 Icons Project, a series of short films about South Africans "who have shaped the world around them",[10] Prinsloo commented that "“I thought [the play] would cause a stir, but I didn’t think it would cause a minor revolution. People were very small-minded and I suppose you live in a bit of a fool’s paradise when you’re an actor".[1]

The actors later performed the play at the Edinburgh Festival.[11] In 1986, Heaney directed a TV movie of the play for Swedish and Finnish television, which starred both Prinsloo and Kani.[9]

Prinsloo returned to the Edinburgh Festival in 2012 with The Sewing Machine, an English-language translation of the Afrikaans-language play, Die Naaimasjien.[6] In the 2000s, Prinsloo appeared on the South African stage in productions of Oskar en die Pienk Tannie; Janneman; Nag, Ma (Night Mother); and Liefde, Anna.[6]

In October 2015 Prinsloo will portray South African journalist, Jani Allan in Jani at the Aardklop festival.[12]

Awards

In 2013, Prinsloo received the ACT Lifetime Achievement Award for Theatre.[13] The awards are offered annually by the Arts and Culture Trust (ACT) of South Africa in order to "honour arts professionals whose extraordinary careers have had a profound and lasting impact on arts, culture and heritage, and whose lifetime achievements have contributed significantly to the enrichment of cultural life in South Africa".[13]

In 2014, Prinsloo was the recipient of a national order by the South African government, the Order of Ikhamanga in silver, for those whose outstanding work has benefited South Africa.[14] National orders are bestowed on South Africa's Freedom Day. The orders celebrate human achievement in various fields, honouring men and women who have left definitive footprints in both the struggle for liberation and in building a better South Africa.[15]

In 2018, Prinsloo was the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Naledi Theatre Awards[16] The awards are offered annually by the Naledi Theatre Awards Committee.

Education

Prinsloo matriculated from the Afrikaanse Hoër Meisieskool.[1] She holds the degree B.A. (Honours) from the University of Pretoria.[17]

Partial filmography
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gollark: They have just as much right to exist as you do.
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References
  1. "Behind the Icon - Leading Lady: Sandra Prinsloo". News 24. 21 December 2014. Retrieved 6 June 2015.
  2. Sandra Prinsloo. Internet Movie Database (IMDB). Retrieved 31 May 2015.
  3. "Breaking: Sandra Prinsloo back in Egoli." TV with Thinus: News & Analysis on South Africa Television, 15 January 2010. Retrieved 1 September 2014.
  4. "RaakPraat met Sandra - New on SABC2." Media Update, 13 November 2007. Retrieved 1 September 2014.
  5. "RaakPraat met Sandra." TVSA: The South African TV Authority. Retrieved 1 September 2014.
  6. "The Prinsloo Phenomenon". Tonight (South Africa). 18 December 2012. Retrieved 31 May 2015.
  7. "Walkout over Black-White Love Scene". Courier-Mail (Australia). 8 March 1985. Retrieved 2 September 2014 from Lexis-Nexis database.
  8. O'Brien, Kerry. "The 7:30 Report: Kani explores a post-apartheid world on stage." Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 11 May 2005. Retrieved 1 September 2014.
  9. Smith, Janet. "Kani's King Lear moment". The Star (Johannesburg). 13 February 2013. Retrieved 2 June 2015.
  10. "About the Project". 21 Icons. Retrieved 6 June 2015.
  11. Andreae, Christopher. "Black/white version of 'Miss Julie' puts a spin on Strindberg's 1888 drama." Christian Science Monitor, 5 September 1985. Retrieved 1 September 2014.
  12. Eenmanstuk oor Jani Allan se lewe Beeld. 23 July 2015
  13. "Celebrating artists who touch our lives". Tonight (South Africa). 19 November 2013. Retrieved 2 June 2015.
  14. "Zuma presents National Orders in Pretoria." The Citizen, 28 April 2014. Retrieved 1 September 2014.
  15. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 1 September 2014.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) Diphoko, Montlenyane. "Zuma bestows 53 luminaries with National Orders." SABC News, 27 April 2014. Retrieved 1 September 2014.
  16. "Complete list of winners in 2018 Naledi Theatre Awards". Artsvark, 19 June 2018.
  17. http://www.whoswhosa.co.za/sandra-prinsloo-5555 Sandra Prinsloo Retrieved 29 December 2012

See also
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