You won't recognize Sandy Gimpel's face from the original "Star Trek" because it was covered by loads of prosthetics! She was The Salt Vampire from the season one episode of TOS "The Man Trap," but she also was a Talosian in the original pilot with Jeffrey Hunter, "The Cage." When Ms. Gimpel started in Hollywood, she had no idea what a "stunt" even was, but she eventually became one of the top stunt performers in the industry and remains active to this day.
Sandra tells us about her origins in Hollywood by becoming one of Elvis Presley's main dancers featured in many of his movies, how she ended up as Bill Mumy's stunt double in "Lost in Space" and how that led to her time on "Star Trek," working with Jeffrey Hunter, William Shatner, and Gene Roddenberry and the secrets to her makeup, and more from her time on Trek.
Plus, stories about doubling Debbie Reynolds from 1961 through the rest of her life, doubling for Betty White and Cloris Leachman, getting tossed off a stage by Sacha Baron Cohen at the BAFTA Awards, tales from "Battlestar Galactica," "Airplane!" and other shows and films from her career, and the scariest stunts gone wrong including an episode of "Bring 'em Back Alive" and a cereal commercial that went from funny to deadly in the blink of an eye.
- Order Sandra's book "Stuntlady: Falling For The Stars" on Amazon - https://amzn.to/46uuobk
- Check out Sandra's website here - https://www.sandragimpel.com/
NOTE: This interview was conducted before the SAG-AFTRA Strike of 2023. No performers were interviewed during the strike unless they were discussing the strike itself.
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