Job Actress
Years active 1936-1983
Known for Sinister housekeepers, domineering mothers, femme fatales
Top Roles Mrs. Manette, Mrs. Hammond, Rachel Salomon, Madame Stephanie Runick, Catherine Vail
Top GenresDrama, Romance, Comedy, Adventure, Crime, Horror
Top TopicsBook-Based, Romance (Drama), Ghosts
Top Collaborators (Director), , (Producer), (Producer)
Shares birthday with John Barrymore, Claire Bloom, Cesar Romero  see more..

Gale Sondergaard Overview:

Legendary character actress, Gale Sondergaard, was born Edith Holm Sondergaard on Feb 15, 1899 in Litchfield, MN. Sondergaard died at the age of 86 on Aug 14, 1985 in Woodland Hills, CA and was cremated and her ashes scattered at sea.

MINI BIO:

Stern-looking Gale Sondergaard was an American actress who, after winning an Academy Award in her first feature, "Anthony Adverse" (she was nominated again for Anna and the King of Siam), went on to corner the market, with Dame Judith Anderson, in sinister housekeepers, domineering mothers and femmes very fatale. Her career was wrecked by the McCarthy witch-hunts, her second husband being writer-director Herbert Biberman who was one of the "Hollywood 10.

(Source: available at Amazon Quinlan's Illustrated Dictionary of Film Character Actors).

HONORS and AWARDS:

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Gale Sondergaard was nominated for two Academy Awards, winning one for Best Supporting Actress for Anthony Adverse (as Faith Paleologue) in 1936.

Academy Awards

YearAwardFilm nameRoleResult
1936Best Supporting ActressAnthony Adverse (1936)Faith PaleologueWon
1946Best Supporting ActressAnna and the King of Siam (1946)Lady ThiangNominated
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Gale Sondergaard Quotes:

Nora Kernan: Jessie looks wonderful tonight.
Brandon Bourne: She has you to thank for her looks, darling.
Nora Kernan: And you! When a woman gets more beautiful after she's married, it means her man is making her very happy or verry unhappy.


Marge Willison: Cut it! I said cut it or I'll throw you both out! If you want to maul each other, do it when there's no boat in port. Understand?


Inez Quintero: [after Lolita expresses an interest in love] You have the blood of the Hidalgos in your veins! Keep it cool, my girl, or I'll whisk you off into a convent!


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Best Supporting Actress Oscar 1936






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Gale Sondergaard Facts
Was going to play the Wicked Witch of The West in the The Wizard of Oz (1939), but instead of making the witch similar to Snow White's beautiful but wicked queen, as was originally planned, they decided the witch should be ugly. Gale then refused the role.

She was blacklisted with her husband in 1948.

Was one of the main inspirations for the look of the Evil Queen/Witch in Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and was ironically rejected {due to her looks as previously mentioned) as the evil witch in The Wizard of Oz (1939), a film that sought to capitalize on the popularity of the former and fairy tales like it.

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