Her mother accompanied her on all of her travels and her father would eventually leave his fur business responsibilities to his son in order to manage Henie's career. As a result, the image of the figure skater was linked to "the image of the glamorous movie star",[15] within the conventions of film and stage musicals of the 1930s. 436. Henie was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia in the mid-1960s. 2023 . What Shows Have Been Renewed or Canceled? At the time of her third marriage, Miss Henie was an admirer of Renoir and Gainsborough, but under her husbands influence became as avid purchaser of modern works. A stand of bleacher seats collapsed at a Baltimore armory, injuring more than 250 people. During the shooting of Second Fiddle (1939), she greeted the then Crown-Prince couple of Norway Olav and Mrtha during their US tour. The Three Faces of Sonja Henie: Competitor, Performer, Movie Star Sonja Henie | Encyclopedia.com She was 55, her. It was her only film shot in Technicolor, but it was not as huge at the box office as her other films and also proved her limitations as a dramatic actress in her only dramatic film. [10], During the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany, German troops saw Hitler's autographed photo prominently displayed at the piano in the Henie family home in Landya, Asker. Her last film, Hello London (1958), received only limited showings in parts of England. She studied in Oslo together with Martin Stixrud and Erna Andersen who was her competitor and skate club member.[17]. Henie married Daniel Reid Topping, an American sports investor from Greenwich, Connecticut, on 4 July 1940; they divorced in 1946. Figure skating, Sochi Olympics: The evolution of the jump in women's https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/henie-sonja, "Henie, Sonja It is her effect on the sport of figure skating that is unrivaled. Her union with American sports investor (and later owner of the New York Yankees) Daniel Reid Topping lasted from 1940 to 1946, likely a victim to her grueling film production and touring schedules. She also planned to become a Hollywood actress and to accomplish on screen for ice-skating what Fred Astaire had done for dancing. ." Sonja Henie - Facts, Bio, Favorites, Info, Family | Sticky Facts [13] Kestnbaum argues that Henie influenced female skaters' costumes that emphasized their wealth, especially her fur-trimmed outfits, which were emulated at the 1930 World Championships, held for the first time in North America, in New York City. Encyclopedia.com. Sonja had by now developed a comedy flair and these films were all among the top box-office hits for 20th Century-Fox the respective years. Sonja Henie - Wikipedia controversy. She had to concentrate on her profession, and fulfill contracts, really from the age of nine on," he explained. She once called Eddie Pec, the only person she permitted to sharpen her skates, in New York, to ask him to come to Chicago, where her show was to open. Skating as a Sport The Onstads gave Norway an art museum and 250 of their paintings in August 1968. Henie Onstad Kunstsenter Grounds. Miss Henie had been suffering from. Topping. Born in Oslo on April 8, 1912, Miss Henie received her first skates from her father, a Norwegian fur wholesaler, on the Christmas after her sixth birthday. She had already delighted in dancing, and--with her brother Leif giving her her first lessons--enjoyed Towards the end of her career, she began to be strongly challenged by younger skaters including Cecilia Colledge, Megan Taylor, and Hedy Stenuf. She was the first skater to incorporate the principles of ballet into her routines and the first woman to perform spins and jumps. She managed to tie together the elements in her routine in way that had not been done before. After the success of her first film, One in a Million (1936), Henie's position was assured and she became increasingly demanding in her business dealings with Zanuck. He agrees that she has no chance for the part but talks her into flying to Hollywood for the trip, with her Aunt Phoebe (Edna May Oliver). Five thousand potential ticket-buyers had to be turned away when she returned to Madison Square Garden in 1937 with the start of her Hollywood Ice Revue. To allow for a rigorous training schedule, Henie's parents took her out of school, hired a private tutor, and gave her ballet lessons in London during the summer. Her passion for performing turned her into a huge financial and popular success among athletes. These activities made her one of the wealthiest self-made women in the world in her time. won her first ice-skating competition. She finished last, but she didn't give up. Henie incorporated ballet movements into her skating; she had taken ballet lessons from the age of five and was influenced by ballerina Anna Pavlova. In 1940 Sonja married businessman Daniel She was a three-time Olympic Champion (1928, 1932, 1936) in Ladies Singles, a ten-time World Champion (1927-1936) and a six-time European Champion (1931-1936). In cooperation with promoter Wirtz, Henie honed her skills as a producer of ice shows as well as maintained her prowess as a skater. She was 57 years old. Henie began skating when she was six years old. We had been flying for only an hour and she just slipped away.. skating even more. The daughter of a fur wholesaler in Norway, Sonja Henie received her first pair of ice skates when she was six. Miss. Wikipedia gives the hard facts in these few words: "Sonja Henie (April 8, 1912 - October 12, 1969) was a Norwegian figure skater and film star. His daughter began studying ballet at age five and would be active in skiing, swimming, and horseback riding. Zanuck first cast Henie in One in a Million (1936), which also starred Don Ameche, Adolphe Menjou, and the Ritz Brothers. Dressed in a white velvet, bell-skirted dress designed by her mother, Henie won over Austria's Herma Planck-Szabo. She grew up in Norway and was a dominant presence on the ice for . She no longer attended school but studied at home with tutors. Her husband chartered a plane to convey her from Paris to Oslo to see her doctor, but she died onboard in her sleep. The pretty, blond skater stood out among the competitors in a white silk and ermine skating dress that had a short skirt. Encyclopedia.com. skater to parlay her athletic success into a lucrative career. advertisement Oscar Holte, the outstanding Norwegian skating coach, supervised much of her training in Oslo and at St. Moritz, Switzerland, as she prepared to enter the International Winter Sports Week at Chamonix, France; retroactively, this special "week" became an official part of the first Winter Olympics in 1924. She was made a Knight First Class of the Order of St. Olaf by King Haakon of Norway, becoming the youngest person to receive this honor. She is said to be one of the best figure skaters in history. At the time of her death, Henie was planning a comeback for a television special that would have aired in January 1970. She was a three-time Olympic Champion (1928, 1932, 1936) in Ladies' Singles, a ten-time World Champion (1927-1936) and a six-time European Champion (1931-1936). Henie tried to break the musical comedy mould with the anti-Nazi film Everything Happens at Night (1939) and It's a Pleasure (1945), a skating variation of the often-told A Star Is Born tale about alcoholic-star-in-decline-helps-newcomer-up. According to various polls, by the end of 1937 Henie ranked among the top ten Hollywood earners; by 1938 she was among Twentieth CenturyFox's top female stars, which included Shirley Temple, Alice Faye, and Loretta Young; and by 1939 she ranked as the third most popular screen actor after Shirley Temple and Clark Gable. After her marriage to Mr. Onstad, a childhood sweetheart, in 1956, she became interested in modern art. Henie, Sonja (1912-1969) Norwegian figure skater who won three consecutive gold medals and became a movie box-office attraction surpassed in her day only by Shirley Temple and Clark Gable. Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives, Thematic Series: Sports Figures, Hamill, Dorothy . (Read Scott Hamiltons Britannica essay on "Training for Olympic Gold."). She broke with her manager in 1951, and began producing shows on her own, but gave them up after a block of seats at a Baltimore armory collapsed before a show in March, 1952, injuring more than 250 people. With Sonja Henie, Jack Oakie, Cesar Romero, Carole Landis. When Geoffrey and Ken get so distracted by romance that they begin to neglect their assignments, it almost leads to disaster as the Gestapo sets out to silence Norden once and for all. Corrections? Her talent was evident from a very early age. How did Sonja Henie die? | Homework.Study.com While her ice show numbers were still worth watching, the film received few distributors and poor reviews, ending her film career. The collapse of a section of bleachers during a show in Baltimore, Maryland in 1952 compounded the tour's legal and financial woes. Henie entered her first Olympic competition in 1924, when she was 11 years old. [13] When white boots quickly became standard for female skaters, Henie began wearing beige boots because she wanted to remain unique. Sonja Henie - IMDb At 14 she was the Norwegian Skating Champion. (b. Sonja The couple was still together in 1969 when Henie died. Sonya Eddy, a veteran actress best known for her performance as nurse Epiphany Johnson on the soap opera "General Hospital," has died, the show announced in a tribute post. The Norwegian Royal Family attended both events and indeed attended her funeral in 1969. When she became a professional skater in 1936, she set her sights on movie stardom and quickly turned herself into a top box office draw. [citation needed], Henie became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1940. However, the date of retrieval is often important. The highly-publicized shows were well attended by film stars and filmmakers, including Darryl F. Zanuck of Twentieth Century-Fox. A male cast member from the Hollywood Ice Review had warmer memories of Henie in a 1996 interview in Films in Review. Kestnbaum states that although toe steps are used as "occassional couterpoints to the legato flow of skating movement", she argues that Henie might have overused these steps, calling them "mincing and ineffective". As a wealthy celebrity, she moved in the same social circles as royalty and heads of state and made Hitler's acquaintance as a matter of course. deals. "Gee-Whizzer." ." Born April 8, 1912, Miss Henie began her world-famed skating career after she received a pair of ice skates for Christmas when she was eight years old. "Tonya-no! As the first and only ice-skating film star, Henie is a show business phenomenon comparable only to the swimmer Esther Williams , who appeared in romantic comedies in the late 1940s. She nevertheless had negotiated an impressive contract and was an immediate hit with audiences. She defended her Olympic titles in 1932 and in 1936, and her world titles annually until 1936. Henie has won more Olympic and World titles than any other ladies' figure skater. Henie won her first major figure skating competition, the senior Norwegian championships, at the age of 10. 1936 her father financed an extravagant ice show in Hollywood. https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/sonja-henie, "Sonja Henie The 1936 European Figure Skating Championships also took place in Berlin and neither Henie, Colledge, nor Megan Taylor paid obeisance to Hitler. She produced her own show at New York's Roxy Theatre in January 1956. Members of the audience paid up to $4.40 for the chance to see Henie. She finished in last place. She signed with Darrly F. Zanuck and 20th Century-Fox, and her first skating film, "One in a Million," was released at the end of 1936. "Henie skates with speed, grace, and eye-boggling abandon through four big numbers," he noted in Entertainment Weekly. Sonja Henie would have been 57 years old at the time of death or 103 years old today. Weatherly did not disclose his brother's cause of death as he paid emotional tribute alongside a throwback photo of himself and Will playing on the beach as children. 27 Apr. In addition to appearing in Hollywood films, she toured North America with her own professional shows, thus amassing a great deal of personal wealth and by popularizing the ice show, opened up professional skating opportunities for other lesser-known figure skaters.[5]. ." With her sunny personality and obvious love of skating, Henie popularized the sport and served as a role model for American skating hopefuls of both sexes, including Dick Button, Tenley Albright (the first American woman to win an Olympic gold medal), and Carol Heiss. An excellent video documentary directed and produced by Edvard Hambro is entitled Sonja Henie: Queen of the Ice (1993). [on studio publicity promoting what was an imaginary romance with Tyrone Power] We had to consult the gossip columns every day to see if we were still in love or not.
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