Birth name Edith Holm Sondergaard NationalityUSA Birth 12 february 1899 at Litchfield (USA) Death 14 august 1985 (at 86 years) at Woodland Hills (USA) Awards Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Gale Sondergaard (February 15, 1899 – August 14, 1985) was an American actress.
Sondergaard began her acting career in theater, and progressed to films in 1936. She was the first recipient of the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her film debut in Anthony Adverse (1936). She played supporting roles in various films during the late 1930s and early 1940s, including The Cat and the Canary (1939), The Mark of Zorro (1940) and The Letter (1940). She was nominated for a second Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for Anna and the King of Siam (1946) but by the end of the decade her film appearances were fewer.
Married to the director Herbert Biberman, Sondergaard supported him when he was accused of communism and named as one of the Hollywood Ten in the early 1950s, which effectively ended her film career. She moved with Biberman to New York City and worked in theatre, and acted in film and television occasionally from the late 1960s. She moved back to Los Angeles where she died from cerebrovascular thrombosis.
Biography
Her younger sister Hester Sondergaard was also an actress who starred in the following films: Jigsaw, The Naked City, and Seeds of Freedom.
Sondergaard was first married in 1922 to actor Neill O'Malley; they divorced in 1930. On 15 May 1930, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she married her second husband, Herbert Biberman, a theater director then associated with the Theatre Guild Acting Company; he became a film director and died in 1971. They had two children, Daniel Hans Biberman and Mrs. Joan Campos.
Sondergaard made a few more film and television appearances, before retiring. She died from cerebrovascular thrombosis in Woodland Hills, California at the age of 86.
, 2h9 Directed byIrvin Kershner OriginUSA GenresDrama, Action, Adventure, Western ActorsRichard Harris, Gale Sondergaard, Irvin Kershner, Geoffrey Lewis, Jorge Luke, William Lucking Roles Elk Woman Rating60% Trappers with government support force the Yellow Hands Sioux off their sacred land. The Indians retreat, but await supernatural punishment to descend on their usurpers. Harris reprises his role as John Morgan, 8th Earl of Kildare, who had lived with the tribe for years and is known as Horse, leaves his English fiancée and estate and returns to America, where he discovers the Yellow Hand people have been largely massacred or put into slavery by the unscrupulous white traders and their Indian cohorts. The few survivors, including wise old Running Bull and stubborn old Elk Woman (Gale Sondergaard) have gone into the Badlands and been forced to eat their dogs. "Why did you return?" asks Elk Woman. "I had to come back," says Morgan. "I had to prove something to myself... there was an empty place in my soul. I could not forget." He finds the tribe dispirited, because of the actions of the trappers, and he begins to devise a strategy to overpower the trappers' stronghold, convincing the Indians to take direct action. Soon even the Indian women and boys are assigned tasks to aid the assault to regain their ancestral land.
, 1h48 Directed byMervyn LeRoy OriginUSA GenresDrama, Crime, Romance ThemesFilms about sexuality ActorsBarbara Stanwyck, James Mason, Van Heflin, Ava Gardner, Cyd Charisse, Gale Sondergaard Roles Nora Kernan Rating68% Just after World War II, socialite Jessie Bourne (Barbara Stanwyck) is home alone one night in her Gramercy Park apartment on New York’s East Side when she receives a mysterious hang-up phone call. Her wealthy playboy husband Brandon (James Mason) is out enjoying himself at the Del Rio night club where young model Rosa Senta (Cyd Charisse)–-who has seen and admired Jessie, who has been a customer at the dress salon where she works-–admonishes Brandon for going out alone. Brandon tries to mollify Rosa but is cut short when Brandon’s former mistress, gold-digging Isabel Lorrison (Ava Gardner), walks in. She has returned from Paris intent on rekindling the romance; but he rebuffs her, professing faithfulness to his wife. An argument ensues in which Isabel's date, wealthy Alec Dawning (Douglas Kennedy), who knows Brandon's reputation, knocks him unconscious. Brandon is rescued by Rosa, who takes him to her home to recover.
, 2h8 Directed byJohn Cromwell OriginUSA GenresDrama, Comedy-drama, Romance ThemesPolitique, Political films, Children's films, Films about royalty ActorsIrene Dunne, Rex Harrison, Linda Darnell, Lee J. Cobb, Gale Sondergaard, Laurette Luez Roles Lady Thiang Rating69% Anna Owens (Irene Dunne) and her son Louis (Richard Lyon) arrive in Bangkok in 1862 to tutor the King's (Rex Harrison) children. She believes she is sufficiently acquainted with Asian customs to know what is proper in Siam, having read a book summarizing the same. However, when the Kralahome or Prime Minister (Lee J. Cobb) comes out to welcome her, he asks her a number of personal questions, and she does not know that this is common courtesy in Siam. Her letter from the King asking her to come to Siam includes a promise that she will have a house of her own away from the Palace, but the Kralahome says she will have to stay in the harem for now (although she'll have a private room there).
, 1h24 Directed byArthur Lubin OriginUSA GenresDrama, Comedy, Fantasy ActorsMerle Oberon, Turhan Bey, Thomas Gomez, Gale Sondergaard, Ray Collins, Ernest Truex Roles Attosa Rating53% In 560 BC King Croesus of Lydia incurs the wrath of the sorceress Queen Attossa he had promised to marry, when he chooses the beautiful Delarai of Persia instead. Attossa, in disembodied form, mocks Croesus nearly to the point of madness, so he seeks a solution from the fortune-teller Aesop, who is very young and handsome, but believes that people only receive wisdom with age, arrived from the Isle of Samos in disguise of an old man with a hunch, a limp, and a cane. But Aesop also has eyes for Delarai. One day, Delarai invites Aesop to interpret a charm. As he does, he goes as his young self but with a different name, Jason. Delarai doesn't know at first, but as she sees the same scar on Jason's hand as Aesop's hand, she knows, and reveals that a hunch and a limp may be faked, but a scar remains a scar, and they fall in love with each other, but Atossa and the people in the palace suspect something is going on with Aesop and Delarai. Croesus wanted the Oracle to tell him the truth and sends Aesop to retrieve it. As Aesop is packing, Delarai talks him out of it but fails. Aesop goes anyway, and Delarai cries herself to sleep. Aesop does go fetch it from a priest, but the priest refuses, saying his life is valuable. Aesop claims that if a priest's words do not mean anything, then his life means less and strangles him. He takes the priest's clothes and hides his face in the hood. Delarai comes to the temple, wanting to seek for Aesop, but before she could say anything, Aesop reveals his young face slightly, and Delarai breaks out a smile. As the security guards see her smile, they unmask Aesop, and Aesop and Delarai run hand in hand. They are forced to jump off a cliff. They jump in each other arms, and Attosa reveals her image at sea, saying that Aesop and Delarai actually survived because of their faith, their love, and a little help from Attosa. They live in a small cottage with a lake and a garden. Delarai is mending and Aesop's hand around on her shoulder, 12 boys come out saying "daddy!" which reveals that they got married and have children.
, 1h22 Directed byCharles Barton OriginUSA GenresFantastic, Comedy, Fantasy, Romance ThemesGhost films, Political films, Buddy films ActorsBud Abbott, Lou Costello, Marjorie Reynolds, Gale Sondergaard, Binnie Barnes, Ann Gillis Roles Emily Rating75% The time is 1780, and Horatio Prim (Lou Costello) is a master tinker. He travels to the estate of Tom Danbury (Jess Barker) with a letter of commendation from General George Washington. He plans to present this letter to Danbury, hoping it will persuade the wealthy man to let Horatio marry Nora O'Leary (Anne Gillis), Danbury's housemaid. Unfortunately, Horatio has a romantic rival in Cuthbert Greenway (Bud Abbott), Danbury's butler, who is very fond of Nora and intends to prevent Horatio from presenting his letter, which Nora has taken for safekeeping.