Gale Sondergaard

Gale Sondergaard
in the trailer for Dramatic School (1938)
Born	Edith Holm Sondergaard (1899-02-15)February 15, 1899 Litchfield, Minnesota, U.S.
Died	August 14, 1985(1985-08-14) (aged 86) Woodland Hills, California, U.S.
Resting place	Cremains scattered into the Pacific Ocean
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1936–1983
Spouse(s)	Neill O'Malley (m. 1922; div. 1930) Herbert J. Biberman (m. 1930; his death 1971)
Children	2

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 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.

She was born Edith Holm Sondergaard on February 15, 1899, in Litchfield, Minnesota to Danish-American parents, Hans and Christin (Holm) Sondergaard. Her father taught at University of Minnesota, where she was a drama student.

She 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 becoming a member of the Theatre Guild, she began performing on the New York stage.