- Born
- Died
- Birth nameEdith Holm Sondergaard
- Height1.68 m
- Sly, manipulative, dangerously cunning and sinister were the key words that best described the roles that Gale Sondergaard played in motion pictures, making her one of the most talented character actresses ever seen on the screen. She was educated at the University of Minnesota and later married director Herbert J. Biberman. Her husband went to find work in Hollywood and she reluctantly followed him there. Although she had extensive experience in stage work, she had no intention of becoming an actress in film. Her mind was changed after she was discovered by director Mervyn LeRoy, who offered her a key role in his film Anthony Adverse (1936); she accepted the part and was awarded the very first Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress. LeRoy originally cast her as the Wicked Witch in Le Magicien d'Oz (1939), but she felt she was not right for that role. Instead, she co-starred opposite Paul Muni in La vie d'Emile Zola (1937), a film that won Best Picture in 1937. Sondergaard's most-remembered role was that of the sinister and cunning wife of a husband murdered by Bette Davis' character in La Lettre (1940). Sondergaard continued her career rise in films such as Juarez (1939), Le signe de Zorro (1940), The Black Cat (1941), and Anna et le roi de Siam (1946). Unfortunately, she was blacklisted when she refused to testify during the McCarthy-inspired "Red Scare" hysteria in the 1950s. She eventually returned to films in the 1960s and made her final appearance in the 1983 film J'ai vécu deux fois (1982). Gale Sondergaard passed away of an undisclosed illness at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital in Woodland Hills, California, at the age of 86.- IMDb mini biography by: Blythe379@cs.com
- SpousesHerbert J. Biberman(May 8, 1930 - June 30, 1971) (his death, 2 children)Neill O'Malley(1922 - 1930) (divorced)
- ChildrenJoan Kristina CamposDaniel Hans Biberman
- ParentsHans SondergaardKristine Sondergaard
- RelativesHester Sondergaard(Sibling)
- After she was blacklisted in 1947, director Mervyn LeRoy, who had given her her first break in "Anthony Adverse," cast her in a supporting role as Barbara Stanwyck's mother in "East Side, West Side" in order to test industry reaction. The negative response to her appearance completed the blacklisting, and she didn't appear in another major Hollywood film for 28 years.
- She was blacklisted with her husband in 1948.
- First actress to win an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Anthony Adverse (1936)).
- After she was called back for retakes on the TV movie "The Cat Creature," she was surprised by Charlton Heston, who presented her with a gold Oscar statuette replacing the plaque she had won decades earlier for "Anthony Adverse.".
- Was one of the main inspirations for the look of the Evil Queen/Witch in Walt Disney's Blanche-Neige et les Sept Nains (1937) and was ironically rejected {due to her looks as previously mentioned) as the evil witch in Le Magicien d'Oz (1939), a film that sought to capitalize on the popularity of the former and fairy tales like it.
- My parents were both progressive people learning much from Henrik Ibsen. My mother believed that a woman should not be tied down to family with nothing else in her life. They were also progressive politically. My father, we thought, voted the Democratic ticket, but actually he voted the Socialist ticket; my mother was a suffragette and I marched in parades with her.
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