{{short description|American actress and model (1938–2017)}} {{Infobox Playboy Playmate <!-- for more information see :TemplateInfobox Playboy Playmate/doc --> | image = Saundra Edwards 1958.JPG <!-- only free-content images are allowed for depicting living people - see WP:NONFREE - magazine covers are expressly forbidden --> | imagesize = 220px | caption = Edwards in 1958. | name = Saundra Edwards | issue = March 1957 | birth_name = Saundra Lee Edwards | birth_date = {{birth date|1938|3|12}} | birth_place = Los Angeles, California, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|2017|6|2|1938|3|12}} | death_place = Palm Springs, California, U.S. | height = {{height|ft=5|in=7}} | preceded = Sally Todd | succeeded = Gloria Windsor | website = }}
'''Saundra Edwards''' (March 12, 1938 – June 2, 2017) was an American actress and model.
==Career== [[File:Sandra Edwards 1959.jpg|thumb|Edwards in ''Sugarfoot'' (1959)]] Edwards was ''Playboy'' magazine's Playmate of the Month for the March 1957 issue. Her centerfold was photographed by Peter Gowland.
In addition to her modeling career for ''Playboy'' and other men's magazines, Edwards, who was part Cherokee, was a showgirl in Las Vegas. Her acting credits — she was a contract player at Warner Bros. — include a few films like ''The Crowded Sky'' (1960), ''Parrish'' (1961), ''A Fever in the Blood'' (1961), and many television roles in programs such as ''Sugarfoot'', ''Hawaiian Eye'', ''Cheyenne'', and ''Maverick'' (in the ''Maverick'' episode "Holiday at Hollow Rock" with James Garner in 1958).
In 1958 Edwards appeared as Vardis Coll on ''Cheyenne'' in the episode titled "Dead to Rights." Also in 1958 Edwards appeared in the ''Cheyenne'' episode titled "White Warrior" as Lois Whitton opposite Clint Walker and guest Star Michael Landon, in the ending credits her name is spelled as Sandra Edwards.
In 1960 Edwards appeared as Jane Emmett on ''Cheyenne'' in the episode titled "Alibi for the Scalped Man."{{citation needed|date=October 2019}}
==Personal life== Having been previously married, aged 16, to Lorin Kopp, her business manager, with whom she had a daughter, Camille, born in 1956 (a son, Steven, was born in 1959),<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/saundra-edwards-killing-old-hollywood/|title=The Actress Who Killed Her Abusive Husband and Was Expelled from Hollywood|first=Christina|last=Newland|date=September 18, 2019}}</ref> Edwards married actor Tom Gilson on December 8, 1961, and had a son named Thomas S. Gilson Jr., who was born the same day. She separated from Gilson in August 1962 when he became abusive, after which she moved in with her sister and brother-in-law. On October 6, 1962, Edwards killed Gilson with a shotgun blast through the heart when he broke into the house where she was staying. A coroner's jury later ruled the shooting as justifiable homicide.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.glamourgirlsofthesilverscreen.com/show/80/Saundra+Edwards/index.html|title=The Private Life and Times of Saundra Edwards|access-date=2007-04-18|publisher =glamourgirlsofthesilverscreen.com}}</ref> The scandal, however, abruptly ended her acting career.
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{Commons category|Sandra Edwards}} * {{playmate|sandra-edwards|Sandra Edwards}} * {{IMDb name|id=0250354|name=Sandra Edwards}}
{{playmates of 1957}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Edwards, Saundra}} Category:1938 births Category:2017 deaths Category:American film actresses Category:Actresses from Los Angeles Category:1950s Playboy Playmates Category:Warner Bros. contract players Category:20th-century American actresses Category:American television actresses Category:American people who self-identify as being of Cherokee descent Category:21st-century American women