- Brigitte Nielson, Red Sonja, 1984. Sonja was born in a Conan comic and producer Dino De Laurentiis asked Arnold Schwarzenegger to reprise his Conan as a favour. Impossible. Dino didn’t have any rights to the name. . So Arnold became Kalidor and tricked into shooting for a month instead of a week. He quit his Dino contract as a result. He also stole the film – and the poster! – from Red Brigitte, with time out for an affair with The Great Dane. Also in the Sonja mix: Sigourney Weaver, of all women… Sandahl Bergman, Conan’s Valeria (she became Queen Gedren, instead)… Lauren Landon, until Dino found she’d been another medieval woman warrior, Hundra, 1982 (you know, iike Arnold had been a previous warrior guy!)… and future TV soap queen Eileen Davidspn – 2,055 episodes as Ashley Abbott/Carlton/Howard in both The Bold and the Beautiful and The Young and the Restless during 1984-2022. Yet no one suggested the strapping Raquel Welch, which is odd as Sonja’s story closely resembled Raquel’s Hannie Caulder in the 1970 revenge Western, itself quite a re-hash of Beverly Garland’s Gunslinger, 1956, and re-made as 6 Guns (!), 2009, with Sage Mears.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 1