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.

Early life and career

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

"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".

Television career

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

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. 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.

The play's producer, Bobby Heaney, speculated that the walk-out was "part of a well planned campaign by conservative whites". Prinsloo reportedly received obscene hate mail and both received death threats. 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". In 1986, Heaney directed a TV movie of the play for Swedish and Finnish television, which starred both Prinsloo and Kani. In 2020 Prinsloo performed a one woman show, Kamphoer – die verhaal van Susan Nell, based on the novel ‘Kamphoer’ written by Francois Smit and the non-fiction publication ‘The Boer Whore’ by Nico Moolman.

Awards

In 2013, Prinsloo received the ACT Lifetime Achievement Award for Theatre. 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". 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.

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

Education

Prinsloo matriculated from the Afrikaanse Hoër Meisieskool.

Partial filmography

A Kind of Madness (2025) The Seagull (Die Seemeeu) (2019) Twee Grade van Moord (2016) 'n Paw-Paw vir My Darling (2015) Soweto Green (1995) The Prince of Pretoria (1993) In the Name of Blood (1990) Quest for Love (1988) Thieves of Fortune (1988) Jewel of the Gods (1989) The Outcast (1984) Claws (1982) The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980) Listen to My Story (1976) Target of an Assassin (1976) No Gold for a Dead Diver (1974) – as Sandra Prinzlow Love Nights in the Taiga (1967)