page_title: Sondra Locke
section_title: Commercial ups and downs, missed roles, TV work
hierarchical_section_title: Sondra Locke / Career / Commercial ups and downs, missed roles, TV work
caption_attribution_description: Publicity photo of David Carradine and Sondra Locke from the television program Kung Fu.
context_page_description: Sandra Louise Anderson, professionally known as Sondra Locke, was an American actress and director. She made her film debut in 1968 in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She went on to star in such hit films as Willard, The Outlaw Josey Wales, The Gauntlet, Every Which Way but Loose, Bronco Billy, Any Which Way You Can and Sudden Impact. She worked often with Clint Eastwood, who was her companion for 14 years. She also directed four films, notably Impulse. Locke's autobiography, The Good, the Bad, and the Very Ugly: A Hollywood Journey, was published in 1997.
context_section_description: Hoping to shed the Plain Jane image she accentuated in her screen debut, in January 1969 Locke posed for a semi-nude pictorial by photographer Frank Bez, which was published in the December issue of Playboy. The Playboy layout established Locke's status as a sex symbol, and the images were recycled in other men's magazines as her fame increased. Nearly three decades later, Locke said she still got those photos in fan mail for her autograph.
  Her next role was as Melisse in Cover Me Babe (1970), originally titled Run Shadow Run, opposite Robert Forster. She made it as part of a $150,000 three-picture deal with 20th Century Fox, and was compensated for the other two which never came to fruition. It was announced that she would play the lead in Lovemakers – a film adaptation of Robert Nathan's novel The Color of Evening – but no movie resulted. Locke was offered Barbara Hershey's role in Last Summer (1969), but her agent turned it down without telling her. Shortly afterwards she passed on the lead in My Sweet Charlie (1970), which won an Emmy for its eventual star Patty Duke.
  In 1971, Locke co-starred with Bruce Davison and Ernest Borgnine in the psychological thriller Willard, which became a surprise box office smash. Locke felt overqualified for her role but did it as a favor to Davison, who at the time was her unofficial paramour. She was then featured in William A. Fraker's underseen mystery A Reflection of Fear (1972) and held the title role in The Second Coming of Suzanne (1974), winner of three gold medals at the Atlanta Film Festival. Both films were shelved for two years before finally opening in arthouse cinemas, attracting little attention at first. Over time Suzanne has developed a cult following, while Reflection is cited as an early example of media portrayals of transgender people.
  In 1973, Locke was attached to star in Terminal Circle. "It's a woman's role that comes along once in a lifetime," she said. The San Francisco-set drama was to be directed by Mal Karman and shot by cinematographer Robert Primes, who did camerawork for Gimme Shelter, but it was scrapped for lack of funds.
  Locke guested on top-rated television drama series throughout the first half of the 1970s, including The F.B.I., Cannon, Barnaby Jones and Kung Fu. She was advised by her agents to stay away from TV, but thought it silly to sit around not working between films. In the 1972 Night Gallery episode "A Feast of Blood", she played the victim of a curse planted by Norman Lloyd; the recipient of a brooch that devoured her. Lloyd acted with Locke again in Gondola (1973), a racially themed, three-character teleplay co-starring Bo Hopkins, and commended the actress for "a beautiful performance – perhaps her best ever." Ron Harper, who worked with Locke on the short-lived 1974 show Planet of the Apes, was even more effusive: "After acting with her in a couple of scenes, there was something so feminine about her that I could picture myself easily falling for her ... She's one of those women who exudes femininity, and you just become so attracted to that."
caption: With David Carradine in Kung Fu, 1974
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