# Gale Sondergaard

Gale Sondergaard (born Edith Holm 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 regularly had supporting roles in films during the late 1930s and 1940s, including The Cat and the Canary (1939), The Mark of Zorro (1940) and The Letter (1940). For her role in Anna and the King of Siam (1946), she was nominated for her second Best Supporting Actress Academy Award. After 1949, her screen work came to an abrupt end for 20 years, primarily due to the Hollywood blacklist.
Married to director Herbert Biberman, Sondergaard supported him when he was accused of communism and imprisoned as one of the Hollywood Ten in the early 1950s. She moved with Biberman to New York City and worked in theater. She only returned to occasional acting in film and television beginning in 1969, when she moved back to Los Angeles. She died from cerebrovascular thrombosis in 1985.

## Early life

Sondergaard was born in Litchfield, Minnesota, to Danish immigrants, Hans Sondergaard (born Hans Tjellesen Schmidt Søndergaard) and Anna Kirstine Søndergaard (née Holm). Her father taught at the University of Minnesota, where she was a drama student.

## Stage and film career
### Until the late 1940s

Sondergaard studied acting at the Minneapolis School of Dramatic Arts before joining the John Keller Shakespeare Company. She later toured North America in productions of Hamlet, Julius Caesar, The Merchant of Venice and Macbeth. After joining the Theatre Guild, she began performing on the New York stage.
She made her first film appearance in Anthony Adverse (1936) as Faith Paleologus, for which she received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Her career flourished during the 1930s, notably as the steadfastly loyal wife of disgraced innocent Alfred Dreyfus in The Life of Emile Zola starring Paul Muni (1937).
During pre-production of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's classic The Wizard of Oz (1939), an early idea was to have the Wicked Witch of the West portrayed as a slinky, glamorous villainess in a black, sequined costume, inspired by the Evil Queen in Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Sondergaard was cast as the witch and photographed for two wardrobe tests, both of which survive—one as a glamorous witch, and another as a conventionally ugly one. After the decision was made to have an ugly witch, Sondergaard, reluctant to wear the disfiguring makeup and fearing it could damage her career, withdrew from the role, and it went to veteran character actress Margaret Hamilton.
Sondergaard was cast as the sultry and slinky Tylette, a magically humanized but devious cat, in The Blue Bird (1940), and played the exotic, sinister Eurasian wife in The Letter (1940) starring Bette Davis. She had a supporting role in The Spider Woman (aka Sherlock Holmes and the Spider Woman, 1943), part of the Universal cycle, followed by the non-canonical The Spider Woman Strikes Back (1946), also for Universal.
She received a second Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actress for her role as the king's principal wife in Anna and the King of Siam (1946).

### House Un-American Activities Committee

Sondergaard's career suffered irreparable damage during the United States Congressional HUAC Red Scare of the early 1950s when her husband was accused of being a communist and named as one of the Hollywood Ten. With her career stalled, she supported her husband during the production of Salt of the Earth (1954). They sold their home in Hollywood shortly after they completed Salt of the Earth and moved to New York where Sondergaard was able to work in theater.

### Later career

In 1969, she appeared in an off-Broadway one-woman show, Woman. She resumed her career in film and television around the same time. Her revived career extended into the early 1980s.

## Personal life

Her younger sister Hester Sondergaard was also an actress who featured in Seeds of Freedom (1943), The Naked City (1948), Jigsaw (1949) and The Big Break (1953).
Sondergaard married actor Neill O'Malley in 1922; they divorced in 1930. On May 15, 1930, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she married director Herbert Biberman, who was then associated with the Theatre Guild Acting Company. He became a film director and died in 1971. They adopted two children, Joan Kirstine Biberman (married name Campos, 1940) and Daniel Hans Biberman.
Following several strokes, Sondergaard died from cerebral vascular thrombosis in the Motion Picture and Television Hospital in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California in 1985, aged 86. She had been admitted to the hospital in 1982.

## Acting credits
### Stage

| Opening date | Closing date | Title | Role | Theatre |
| Oct 08, 1928 | Nov 1928 | Faust | The Witch | Guild Theatre |
| Nov 19, 1928 | Jan 1929 | Major Barbara | Sarah Undershaft, Lady Britomart's daughter | Guild Theatre |
| Oct 7, 1929 | Nov 1929 | Karl and Anna | Marie's sister | Guild Theatre |
| Dec 17, 1929 | Feb 1930 | Red Rust | Nina | Martin Beck Theatre |
| May 11, 1931 | May 23, 1931 | Alison's House | Elsa - Replacement | Ritz Theatre |
| Feb 21, 1933 | March 1933 | American Dream | Lydia Kimball, The First Play, 1650 | Guild Theatre |
| May 17, 1934 | Jul 1934 | Invitation to a Murder | Lorinda Channing | Theatre Masque |
| Nov 6, 1933 | Nov 1933 | Doctor Monica | Anna | Playhouse Theatre |
| Dec 19, 1940 | Dec 28, 1940 | Cue for Passion | Frances Chapman | Royale Theatre |
| Apr 02, 1980 | April 26, 1980 | Goodbye Fidel | Prudencia | Ambassador Theatre |

### Film and television

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1936 | Anthony Adverse | Faith Paleologus | first winner of Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress |
| 1937 | Maid of Salem | Martha Harding | |
| 1937 | Seventh Heaven | Nana, Diane's Sister | |
| 1937 | The Life of Emile Zola | Lucie Dreyfus | |
| 1938 | Lord Jeff | Doris Clandon | |
| 1938 | Dramatic School | Madame Therese Charlot | |
| 1939 | Never Say Die | Juno Marko | |
| 1939 | Juarez | Empress Eugenie | |
| 1939 | Sons of Liberty | Rachel Salomon | short |
| 1939 | The Cat and the Canary | Miss Lu | |
| 1939 | The Llano Kid | Lora Travers | |
| 1940 | The Blue Bird | Tylette (the cat) | |
| 1940 | The Mark of Zorro | Inez Quintero | |
| 1940 | The Letter | Mrs. Hammond | |
| 1941 | The Black Cat | Abigail Doone | |
| 1941 | Paris Calling | Colette | |
| 1942 | My Favorite Blonde | Madame Stephanie Runick | |
| 1942 | Enemy Agents Meet Ellery Queen | Mrs. Van Dorn | |
| 1943 | A Night to Remember | Mrs. Devoe | |
| 1943 | Appointment in Berlin | Gretta Van Leyden | |
| 1943 | Isle of Forgotten Sins | Marge Willison | |
| 1943 | The Strange Death of Adolf Hitler | Anna Huber | |
| 1943 | Crazy House | Herself | uncredited |
| 1944 | The Spider Woman | Adrea Spedding | aka Sherlock Holmes and the Spider Woman |
| 1944 | Follow the Boys | Herself | uncredited |
| 1944 | The Invisible Man's Revenge | Lady Irene Herrick | |
| 1944 | Christmas Holiday | Mrs. Monette | |
| 1944 | Gypsy Wildcat | Rhoda | |
| 1944 | The Climax | Luise | |
| 1944 | Enter Arsène Lupin | Bessie Seagrave | |
| 1946 | The Spider Woman Strikes Back | Zenobia Dollard | |
| 1946 | Night in Paradise | Queen Attossa | |
| 1946 | Anna and the King of Siam | Lady Thiang | nominated — Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress |
| 1946 | The Time of Their Lives | Emily | |
| 1947 | Pirates of Monterey | Señorita De Sola | |
| 1947 | Road to Rio | Catherine Vail | |
| 1949 | East Side, West Side | Nora Kernan | |
| 1969 | Slaves | New Orleans lady | |
| 1969 | It Takes a Thief | Madame Olga Millard | episode: "The Scorpio Drop" |
| 1970 | Get Smart | Hester Van Hooten | episode: "Rebecca of Funny-Folk Farm" |
| 1970 | Tango | | TV movie |
| 1970 | The Best of Everything | Amanda Key | 2 episodes |
| 1970 | Savage Intruder | Leslie | |
| 1971 | Night Gallery | Abigail Moore | episode: "The Dark Boy" |
| 1971 | The Bold Ones: The Lawyers | Mrs. Marley | episode: "The Letter of the Law" |
| 1973 | The Cat Creature | Hester Black | TV movie |
| 1974 | Medical Center | Myra | episode: "Adults Only" |
| 1974 | Nakia | Bert | episode: "The Quarry" |
| 1974 | Police Story | Marge White | episode: "A World Full of Hurt" |
| 1976 | Ryan's Hope | Marguerite Beaulac | 6 episodes |
| 1976 | The Return of a Man Called Horse | Elk Woman | |
| 1976 | Pleasantville | Ora | |
| 1976 | Hollywood on Trial | Herself | documentary |
| 1977 | Visions | Ora Drummond | Episode: "Pleasantville" |
| 1978 | Centennial | Aunt Augusta | TV miniseries |
| 1981 | The Fall Guy | Mrs. Jackson | episode: "The Human Torch" |
| 1983 | Echoes | Mrs. Edmunds | |