Sylvia Sidney

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Sylvia Sidney (1936)

Sylvia Sidney (born August 8, 1910 in the Bronx , New York City , † July 1, 1999 in New York City; born Sophia Kosow ) was an American actress .

Career

Sylvia Sidney first appeared in the theater after graduating from drama school and made her film debut in the drama Thru Different Eyes in 1929 . After a few more theater roles, she didn't move to Hollywood until 1931 , after signing a deal with Paramount . The producer BP Schulberg was looking for a replacement for his previous protégée Clara Bow , whose weight problems and court hearings with her secretary had led to a rapid decline in her popularity. Sidney took on Bow's role on the streets of the big city that made her a star practically overnight.

Her appearance in An American Tragedy , a heavily abridged version of the classic by Theodore Dreiser , later in the same year, directed by Josef von Sternberg after Sergei Eisenstein had to leave the project, received critical acclaim. A short time later, the actress had one of her greatest financial successes with the film The Women's Prison . Through this film, she was then largely committed to the role of the innocent persecuted, who suffers from sadistic men and regularly has to go to prison for crimes that she had not committed.

To Sidney's own displeasure, these types of roles built her up into the tearful heroine of the working class by the studio. Occasional excursions into the comedic subject were mostly not accepted by the audience. In 1933 Sidney was again seen in the film adaptation of a play by Dreiser: Jennie Gerhardt , in which she played the title role. Around the middle of the decade she worked with the director Fritz Lang on three films in a row : Fury , Gehetzt and Du und Ich . She also worked in the Alfred Hitchcock film Sabotage in 1936 . However , the actress was not exactly enthusiastic about the collaboration with the master of suspense .

When her seven-year contract expired in late 1939, the actress withdrew from the film business, returned to Broadway and went on tour with theater productions. From the 1950s, Sidney also worked extensively for television. She returned to the big screen occasionally and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1973 for her role as mother of Joanne Woodward in Summer Wishes . She became known to a new generation of moviegoers through her appearances in the Tim Burton films Beetlejuice and Mars Attacks! .

Sylvia Sidney was married three times, including to actor Luther Adler , but all marriages ended in divorce. She died of cancer in July 1999 at the age of 88.

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Commons : Sylvia Sidney  - Collection of Images
personal data
SURNAME Sidney, Sylvia
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kosow, Sophia (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-american actress
DATE OF BIRTH August 8, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Bronx , New York City , New York , United States
DATE OF DEATH July 1, 1999
Place of death New York City , New York , United States