He joined William D'Avenant's company at Lincoln's Inn Fields about a year after its formation, and was, on 16 December 1661, the original Worm in Abraham Cowley's Cutter of Coleman Street.
During the same season he was Sylvanus in the Stepmother, also by Stapleton, and in 1664 was Wheadle in George Etherege's Comical Revenge, or Love in a Tub, and Provost in The Rivals, D'Avenant's alteration of The Two Noble Kinsmen.
In 1672 he was Camillo in Joseph Arrowsmith's Reformation, Jasper in Henry Nevil Payne's Fatal Jealousy, and Ghost of Banquo in D'Avenant's operatic rendering of Macbeth.
John Downes speaks of Betterton and Cave Underhill as "the only remains" of the Duke of York's servants from 1662 at the union in October 1706, it has been assumed that Sandford was then dead.
[1] Anthony Aston, in his Brief Supplement, described Sandford as round-shouldered, meagre-faced, spindle-shanked, splay-footed, with a sour countenance, and long thin arms; and adds that Charles II called him the best villain in the world.