40 Fun Facts About Famous Sarahs

Sarah Jessica Parker, television's Carrie Bradshaw, played witch Sarah Sanderson in which 1993 film with Bette Midler?

Hocus Pocus drew only average reviews in 1993 but became a cult favorite through home video and television, and Parker returned for a sequel in 2022.

Sarah Michelle Gellar, television's Buffy Summers, married which actor she met filming I Know What You Did Last Summer?

Freddie Prinze Jr. and Gellar married in 2002, the same year they played Fred and Daphne in the live-action Scooby-Doo.

Sarah Palin, John McCain's running mate in 2008, was impersonated on Saturday Night Live by which Emmy-winning comedian?

Tina Fey had already left the cast and came back as a guest to play Palin. On one October 2008 show the real Sarah Palin appeared alongside her.

Sarah Connor, a waitress hunted by a cyborg from the future, was played in the first two Terminator films by whom?

Linda Hamilton came back to the part 28 years later in Terminator: Dark Fate. She was once married to James Cameron, who directed her in the first two films.

In Genesis, which son is born to Sarah in old age after she laughs at the promise of a child?

Isaac means he laughs in Hebrew, echoing the laughter of Abraham and Sarah at the news. Ishmael, Abraham's elder son, was born to Sarah's servant Hagar.

Sarah Winchester, whose sprawling San Jose mansion is now a tourist attraction, was heiress to a fortune made from what?

Firearms built the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, founded by her father-in-law. The popular tale that she kept building to appease ghosts has no evidence behind it.

Sarah Josepha Hale, author of the nursery rhyme Mary Had a Little Lamb, campaigned to create which American holiday?

Thanksgiving was kept mostly in New England until Hale took up the cause. She wrote to five presidents in turn, ending with Abraham Lincoln, to ask for a national day.

Sarah Ferguson, the British author known as Fergie, married which royal at Westminster Abbey in 1986?

Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson separated in 1992 and divorced in 1996. They have two daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie.

Comedian Sarah Silverman, briefly a Saturday Night Live cast member, voices racer Vanellope in which Disney film?

Wreck-It Ralph casts her as Vanellope von Schweetz, a glitch barred from racing in a candy-themed kart game. Silverman returned for the 2018 sequel, Ralph Breaks the Internet.

Sarah Breedlove, born in Louisiana, built a fortune under the name Madam C. J. Walker by selling what?

Hair care products sold to Black customers made her fortune. Orphaned at seven, Walker was the first of her parents' children to be born into freedom.

Sarah McLachlan, the Canadian singer of the ballad Angel, founded which touring music festival in 1997?

Lilith Fair began after McLachlan grew frustrated with promoters and radio stations that refused to feature two female musicians in a row.

Sarah Paulson, a mainstay of American Horror Story, won an Emmy as which prosecutor in The People v. O. J. Simpson?

Marcia Clark was the lead prosecutor at the 1995 trial. Paulson was one of the first two actors cast in the series, along with Cuba Gooding Jr. as Simpson.

Sarah Snook, an Australian actress, won an Emmy for playing media heiress Shiv Roy in which HBO drama?

Succession was her breakthrough. Snook later won a Tony Award for a stage version of The Picture of Dorian Gray in which she played all 26 roles.

Sarah Hyland played eldest child Haley Dunphy from 2009 to 2020 in which ABC sitcom filmed in mockumentary style?

Modern Family won its cast the Screen Actors Guild ensemble award four years running. Hyland, who has a donated kidney, at times kept filming through spells of bed rest.

Sarah Brightman, the first Christine in The Phantom of the Opera, sang the duet Time to Say Goodbye with which tenor?

Andrea Bocelli and Brightman topped charts across Europe with the 1996 single, which sold over three million copies in Germany alone.

Sarah Vaughan, nicknamed Sassy and The Divine One, rose from an Apollo Theater amateur contest to fame in which genre?

Jazz bandleader Earl Hines took her on in 1943 after her Apollo win, hiring her as a pianist so that she came under the musicians' union rather than the singers' one.

Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne were among the first three accused of witchcraft in 1692 in which Massachusetts village?

Salem Village heard the first accusations when the afflicted named Good, Osborne and Tituba, a woman enslaved in the household of minister Samuel Parris.

Professor Sarah Gilbert of Oxford University co-developed a COVID-19 vaccine made and sold by which drug company?

AstraZeneca went on to supply more than three billion doses worldwide. Gilbert's Oxford team had designed the vaccine within two weeks of starting work on the new virus.

Which actress plays the television star who dumps Jason Segel's character in the 2008 comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall?

Kristen Bell plays the title character, who turns up at the same Hawaiian resort with a new boyfriend played by Russell Brand. Mila Kunis plays the hero's new love interest.

Comedian Sarah Cooper went viral on TikTok in 2020 by lip-syncing to the recorded words of which politician?

Donald Trump supplied the audio and Cooper the faces, starting with his remarks on possible coronavirus cures. Her first viral clip passed 24 million views.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a former White House press secretary, became governor of which state, once led by her father?

Arkansas was governed by her father, Mike Huckabee, from 1996 to 2007. She is the first woman to govern a state that her father had governed before her.

Sarah Hughes, a teenager from Long Island, won a surprise gold medal at the 2002 Winter Olympics in which sport?

Figure skating has seen few bigger upsets. The three skaters ahead of Hughes after the short program, Michelle Kwan among them, all made mistakes in the free skate.

Sarah Storey, Britain's most successful Paralympian, won her first golds as a swimmer before taking up which sport?

Cycling took her past the British record for Paralympic golds in 2021. Her first two had come in the pool in Barcelona in 1992, when she was 14.

Sarah Burton designed Catherine Middleton's 2011 wedding dress while creative director of which British fashion house?

Alexander McQueen took Burton on full-time when she graduated in 1997, and she became creative director after the founder's death in 2010.

Sarah Mullally, once England's chief nursing officer, became in 2026 the first woman to hold which historic office?

Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop of the Church of England. In 2018 Mullally had already become the first woman to serve as Bishop of London.

Sarah Bernhardt, the French stage star who played Hamlet, kept performing after a 1915 operation cost her what?

A leg was amputated almost to the hip after gangrene set in. Bernhardt refused crutches or a wheelchair and was carried in a palanquin she designed herself.

Sarah Chalke, who took over the role of Becky on Roseanne, played Dr. Elliot Reid in which medical series?

Scrubs kept Chalke for all nine seasons of its original run. On Roseanne she replaced Lecy Goranson, who later came back, so the two ended up sharing the part.

Sarah Lancashire, once Raquel in Coronation Street, stars as police sergeant Catherine Cawood in which crime drama?

Happy Valley was written for her by Sally Wainwright, who had been impressed by Lancashire's performances in their earlier series Last Tango in Halifax.

In the 1986 film Labyrinth, which actress plays Sarah, a teenager who must rescue her baby brother from the Goblin King?

Jennifer Connelly starred opposite David Bowie as the Goblin King in a film co-produced by Jim Henson's company and Lucasfilm. She later won an Oscar for A Beautiful Mind.

Detective Sarah Lund, whose Faroese jumper became a craze, hunts a killer in which city in the series The Killing?

Copenhagen is home to Lund, played by Sofie Gråbøl. Shown with subtitles in Britain, the series drew more viewers there than Mad Men.

Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, was for years the closest friend and adviser of which British monarch?

Queen Anne's friendship made Sarah one of the most influential figures of her time, and her husband and Lord Godolphin rose to head the government when Anne came to power in 1702.

Sarah Thomas, the NFL's first full-time female official, became in 2021 the first woman to officiate in which game?

The Super Bowl assignment came two years after she became the first woman to officiate on the field in an NFL playoff game, in January 2019.

Journalist Sarah Koenig, a former producer of This American Life, hosts which hit podcast that debuted in October 2014?

Serial won a Peabody award in 2015 for taking podcasting into the cultural mainstream. Its first season dug into the 1999 killing of a Baltimore high school student.

Sarah J. Maas began writing which fantasy novel about teenage assassin Celaena Sardothien at the age of sixteen?

Throne of Glass became her debut novel and grew into a series that ended with its eighth book in 2018. Maas also wrote A Court of Thorns and Roses.

Sarah Boone, a dressmaker born into slavery, received an 1892 US patent for improving which household item?

Ironing board improvements were her aim: Boone's version was narrow, curved and reversible, so that both sides of a sleeve could be pressed.

Sarah Weddington was only 26 when she first argued which landmark case before the US Supreme Court?

Roe v. Wade was a remarkable debut, because Weddington had never tried a legal case before. Her client, known in court as Jane Roe, was Norma McCorvey.

Sarah Jane Smith, an investigative journalist, joined Doctor Who in 1973 as companion to which actor's Third Doctor?

Jon Pertwee's Doctor met her in The Time Warrior, and actress Elisabeth Sladen stayed on when Tom Baker took over. She later fronted her own spin-off, The Sarah Jane Adventures.

Sarah Siddons, the leading tragic actress of the 18th-century stage, was most famous as which Shakespeare character?

Lady Macbeth was the role she made her own. The Sarah Siddons Award was invented for the 1950 film All About Eve, and a Chicago society later began presenting it for real.

Sarah Polley, a child star of the series Road to Avonlea, won a screenwriting Oscar for which film she also directed?

Women Talking, adapted from a novel by Miriam Toews, won her the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Polley had been nominated once before, for her directing debut.

Which actress won an Emmy for playing con artist Sarah Manning and several of her clones in the thriller Orphan Black?

Tatiana Maslany became the first Canadian to win an Emmy in a major dramatic acting category for a Canadian series.