Gale Sondergaard
Gale Sondergaard was born in Litchfield, Minnesota, United States on February 15th, 1899 and is the Movie Actress. At the age of 86, Gale Sondergaard biography, profession, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, measurements, education, career, dating/affair, family, news updates, and networth are available.
At 86 years old, Gale Sondergaard has this physical status:
Gale Sondergaard (born Edith Holm Sondergaard; February 15, 1899-85) was an American actress. Sondergaard began her acting career in theater and then moved to film in 1936.
In Anthony Adverse (1936), she was the first recipient of the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her film debut.
She appeared in films during the late 1930s and 1940s, including The Cat and the Canary (1939), The Mark of Zorro (1940) and The Letter (1940).
She was nominated for her second Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for her work in Anna and the King of Siam (1946).
Her screen work came to an end for the next 20 years after the late 1940s. Sondergaard, who was married to director Herbert Biberman, aided him in the early 1950s when he was accused of communism and named as one of the Hollywood Ten.
She migrated with Biberman to New York City, worked in theatre, and appeared on film and television occasionally from the late 1960s.
She returned to Los Angeles after suffering from cerebrovascular thrombosis.
Early life
Sondergaard was born in Litchfield, Minnesota, to Danish immigrants Hans Sondergaard (born Hans Tjellesen Schmidt Sndergaard) and Anna Kirstine Sndergaard (née Holm). Her father was a drama student at the University of Minnesota.
Personal life
Hester Sondergaard, her younger sister, appeared in Seeds of Liberty (1943), Jigsaw (1949) and The Big Break (1953).
In 1922, Sondergaard married actor Neill O'Malley; they divorced in 1930. She married director Herbert Biberman, who was then employed by the Theatre Guild Acting Company, on May 15, 1930 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He became a film producer and died in 1971. Joan Kirstine Biberman (married name Campos, 1940) and Daniel Hans Biberman were adopted by the two children.
Sondergaard died of cerebral thrombosis in the Motion Picture and Television Hospital in Woodland Hills, California, at the age of 85. She had been admitted to the hospital in 1982.
Stage and film career
Sondergaard studied at the Minneapolis School of Dramatic Arts before joining the John Keller Shakespeare Company. She appeared in Hamlet, Julius Caesar, The Merchant of Venice, and Macbeth. She began performing on Broadway after joining the Theatre Guild and then went to the New York stage.
Faith Paleologus, her first film appearance in Anthony Adverse (1936), for which she received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Emile Zola (1937): Her career flourished during the 1930s, including a stint with Paul Muni in The Life of Emile Zola (1937).
In a pre-production of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's classic The Wizard of Oz (1939), an early attempt was to have the Wicked Witch of the West portrayed as a slinky, glamorous villainess based on Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Sondergaard was modelled as the witch and photographed for two wardrobe tests, one as a glamorous witch and the other as a conventionally ugly one. After the decision was made to have an ugly witch, Sondergaard, who was hesitant to wear the disfiguring makeup and fearing it might hurt her career, she resigned from the role, and veteran character actress Margaret Hamilton emerged.
Sondergaard was portrayed in The Blue Bird (1940) as the sultry and devious cat and played the glamorous, sinister wife of Bette Davis. She appeared in The Spider Woman (aka Sherlock Holmes and the Spider Woman, 1943), a Universal cycle film, followed by the non-canonical The Spider Woman Strikes Back (1946), also for Universal.
In Anna and the King of Siam (1946), she received her second Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actress for her role as the king's primary wife.
Sondergaard's career suffered irreparable damage during the early 1950s in the United States' congressional HUAC Red Scare, when her husband was accused of being a communist and was named as one of the Hollywood Ten. With her career stalled, she continued to help her husband during the production of Salt of the Earth (1954). They sold their Hollywood home right after finishing Salt of the Earth and relocating to New York, where Sondergaard was able to work in theatre.
Woman appeared in a one-woman performance on Broadway in 1969. She returned to film and television at the same time. Her resurgent career lasted into the 1980s.