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In the six years that followed, Sarah had a go at a debutante school called Crofton Grange, made passes at other finishing schools, finally put in two useful years at Britain's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. "I might have got a scholarship," she says, "but Daddy had too much money. He designs steel mills. He designed one for Pakistan and one for Cuba. Before." In a Royal Academy production, Sarah was spotted by Hugh ("Binki") Beaumont, one of London's top managers, "who in the theater if you're in with, you've got it made." Beaumont signed her for repertory, threw her into The Reluctant Debutante, a role she was uniquely suited for, and The Moon Is Blue. Then Term's Producer Jimmy Woolf saw her in Moon, called her for a reading. Says Sarah: "When he told me I was being considered for the part with Sir Laurence, I thought: hell, thanks, goodbye—what!" Sixty girls read for the part. Says Pleased Producer Woolf: "She was easily the best."
Scars & Scrapes. Physically, Sarah is a boyish slip of a girl—5 ft. 6 in., 96 Ibs. But the flappy ears are no longer a problem, since she had them bobbed at 14, and her dark brown hair tumbles over the left of her big blue-green eyes in a fetching way.
Reporting on location in Dublin last week to start filming, Sarah was in a state of nerves at the thought of confronting the great Sir Laurence on-camera. But when someone asked about a scar on her knee, she proved that her ad libs remained as freewheeling as ever. "Oh, that," said Sarah. "The Archduke of Austria gave me a ride on his motorcycle, and I fell off. He didn't bow and scrape and click, but he said he was the archduke. And he wanted me to come home with him and meet Mother Archduchess."