Terminator: Every Actress Who Played Sarah Connor

The storied Terminator franchise plays host to Sarah Connor, one of the toughest female heroes in pop culture history, and here’s who played her.

The storied Terminator franchise plays host to Sarah Connor, one of the toughest female heroes in pop culture history, and here’s who played her. On the surface, it might appear that the Terminator movies revolve around John Connor, but at the heart of the series is Sarah, who starts out as an unassuming waitress just trying to make a living and get by. That is until she’s hunted by a murderous cyborg and falls in love with a man from the future just long enough to become pregnant with humanity’s apparent savior.

A lesser woman might have crumbled under that pressure, but Sarah rose to the occasion, becoming tough as nails and doing her best to teach young John to be just as capable. Sure, she eventually lost it a bit and spent some time in a mental hospital, but if those involved with putting her there believed her warnings about judgment day, they would’ve probably had a breakdown too.

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Sarah Connor has now appeared in four of the six Terminator movies made to date, as well as starred in her own FOX TV series. Here’s all the actresses who’ve brought Sarah Connor to life so far, on both the big and small screens.

Linda Hamilton (Terminator, T2 & Dark Fate)

Linda Hamilton originated the role of Sarah Connor in 1984’s The Terminator, complete with an extremely 1980s haircut. With the help of Kyle Reese, Sarah defeated the T-800 and lived on to try and prepare John for his role in the coming man/machine war. Hamilton returned to the role for 1991’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day, with Sarah now battle-hardened, muscled up, and ready for a fight, eventually with John and a new T-800 by her side. After a nearly 30-year hiatus, Hamilton again played Sarah in 2019’s Terminator: Dark Fate, which sadly saw John meet his end at the hands of yet another T-800.

Lena Headey (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles)

Future Game of Thrones star Lena Headey had the unenviable task of taking over the Sarah Connor role for FOX’s Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles TV series. Thankfully, she proved up to the task, albeit enduring a bit of criticism for not being as ripped as Hamilton. The Sarah Connor Chronicles was sadly canceled after only two seasons and 31 episodes.

Willa Taylor (Terminator Genisys)

A young actress by the name of Willa Taylor played Sarah Connor at 9-years-old in Terminator Genisys flashback scenes, which illustrate how – in a strange alternate timeline – a young Sarah was saved from death in 1973 by a reprogrammed T-800 dubbed “Pops.”

Emilia Clarke (Terminator Genisys)

Finally, another Game of Thrones star, Emilia Clarke, played an adult Sarah Connor in Terminator Genisys‘ alternate timeline. This timeline also saw John Connor from the future become an evil advanced Terminator model, and well, Genisys‘ plot was pretty confusing, to put it mildly.

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Related Topics

• Horror
• Terminator Salvation (2009)
• Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)
• Terminator 5
• Terminator
• Terminator 2

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Michael Kennedy (3906 Articles Published)

Michael Kennedy is an avid movie and TV fan that’s been working for Screen Rant in various capacities since 2014. In that time, Michael has written over 2000 articles for the site, first working solely as a news writer, then later as a senior writer and associate news editor. Most recently, Michael helped launch Screen Rant’s new horror section, and is now the lead staff writer when it comes to all things frightening. A FL native, Michael is passionate about pop culture, and earned an AS degree in film production in 2012. He also loves both Marvel and DC movies, and wishes every superhero fan could just get along. When not writing, Michael enjoys going to concerts, taking in live professional wrestling, and debating pop culture. A long-term member of the Screen Rant family, Michael looks forward to continuing on creating new content for the site for many more years to come.