Sylvia Sydney
| Sylvia Sidney | |
|---|---|
c. 1940s
|
|
| Born |
Sophia Kosow August 8, 1910 The Bronx, New York, U.S. |
| Died | July 1, 1999 (aged 88) New York City, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Esophageal cancer |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1926–1998 |
| Spouse(s) |
Bennett Cerf (1935–1936; divorced) Luther Adler (1938–1946; divorced) Carlton Alsop (1947–1951; divorced) |
| Children | Jacob (1939–1987) |
Sylvia Sidney (born Sophia Kosow; August 8, 1910 – July 1, 1999) was an American actress of stage, screen and film, with a career spanning over 70 years, who first rose to prominence in dozens of leading roles in the 1930s.
Sidney, born Sophia Kosow in The Bronx, was the daughter of Rebecca (née Saperstein), a Romanian Jew, and Victor Kosow, a Russian Jewish immigrant who worked as a clothing salesman. Her parents divorced by 1915, and she was adopted by her stepfather, Sigmund Sidney, a dentist. Her mother became a dressmaker and renamed herself Beatrice Sidney. Now using the surname Sidney, she became an actress at the age of fifteen as a way of overcoming shyness. As a student of the Theater Guild's School for Acting, Sidney appeared in several of their productions during the 1920s and earned praise from theater critics. In 1926, she was seen by a Hollywood talent scout and made her first film appearance later that year.
During the Depression, Sidney appeared in a string of films, often playing the girlfriend or the sister of a gangster. She appeared opposite such heavyweight screen idols as Spencer Tracy, Henry Fonda, Joel McCrea, Fredric March, George Raft and Cary Grant. Among her films from this period were: An American Tragedy, City Streets and Street Scene (all 1931), Alfred Hitchcock's Sabotage and Fritz Lang's Fury (both 1936), You Only Live Once, Dead End (both 1937) and The Trail of the Lonesome Pine, an early three-strip Technicolor film. It was during this period that she developed a reputation for being difficult to work with.
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