Gale Sondergaard

February 15, 1899 - August 14, 1985
Born Edith Holm Sondergaard in Litchfield, Minnesota

Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Anthony Adverse (1936)

See Internet Movie Database Filmography

A Few Favorite Memories of Gale Sondergaard

• Receiving the very first Best Supporting Actress Oscar as "Faith Paleologus," the smiling villainess in the historical adventure-romance Anthony Adverse (1936), directed by Mervyn LeRoy an (uncredited) Michael Curtiz. Starring Fredric March and Olivia de Havilland, with a huge supporting cast of familiar faces including Claude Rains, Donald Woods, Anita Louise, Edmund Gwenn, Louis Hayward, Akim Tamiroff, Ralph Morgan, Fritz Leiber, Luis Alberni, Pedro de Cordoba, George E. Stone, Rafaela Ottiano, Leonard Mudie, Eily Malyon, J. Carrol Naish, Frank Reicher, Egon Brecher, Michael Mark, Ottola Nesmith, Frank Shannon, Zeffie Tilbury and Joan Woodbury.
  
  
• As "Miss Lu," foretelling doom for Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard in the comedy thriller The Cat and the Canary.
  
  
• As "Tylette" (the cat), accompanying Shirley Temple on a fairy tale quest to find The Blue Bird of Happiness.
  
  
• As "Abigail Doone," lending sinister atmosphere to a star-studded cast in the second Universal film titled The Black Cat — not the classic one (though it also has Bela Lugosi), but another spoofy Old Dark House romp.
  
  
• As South Sea saloon queen "Marge Willison," going tropical with a fun cast (including John Carradine and Sidney Toler) in Isle of Forgotten Sins.
  
  
• As poisonous "Andrea Spedding," tangling Basil Rathbone in her web in Sherlock Holmes and the Spider Woman.
  
  
• Joining John Carradine, Jon Hall, Evelyn Ankers and other Universal stalwarts as "Lady Irene Herrick" in The Invisible Man's Revenge.
  
  
• Supporting musical madman Boris Karloff (in his first color film) as "Luise" in Universal's attempt to follow up Claude Rains' operatic Phantom, The Climax.
  
  
• As blind, botanical bitch goddess "Zenobia Dollard," draining blood, poisoning cattle, and bossing Rondo Hatton around in the weird western The Spider Woman Strikes Back — a sequel to her earlier Holmesian villainy by implication only.
  
  
• Reuniting with John Carradine, Keye Luke and other wonderful old-timers as "Hester Black" in Curtis Harrington's TV movie The Cat Creature, based on a story by Robert Bloch.

Last revised May 9 2021 by George "E-gor" Chastain.

Maintained by George "E-gor" Chastain (e-mail: egorschamber@gmail.com)