SYLVIA SIDNEY

'Sylvia Sidney' (August 8, 1910 - July 1, 1999) was an Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe Award-winning American actress.

Contents

Biography

Early life

Career

Personal life

References

External links

Biography

Early life

Sidney, an only child, was born 'Sophia Kosow' in The Bronx, New York to Rebecca, a Romanian Jew, and Victor Kosow, a Russian Jewish immigrant.^[1] Sidney became an actress at the age of 15 as a way of overcoming shyness, using her stepfather's surname as her professional surname. 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.

Career

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 (a frequent screen partner), 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'' and ''Dead End'' (both 1937).
Although Sidney had an arresting, slightly Eurasian face and a lovely figure, these assets were often obscured for the sake of the stark, gritty plots of her films.
Her career diminished somewhat during the 1940s. In 1952, she played the role of Fantine in ''Les Misérables'', and her performance was widely praised and allowed her opportunities to develop as a character actress. She received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress nomination for her role in ''Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams'' (1973), and she was visibly furious at losing to the 10-year-old Tatum O'Neal.
As an elderly woman she continued to play supporting roles, and was identifiable by her husky voice, the result of a lifetime cigarette smoking habit. She was the formidable Miss Coral in the film version of ''I Never Promised You a Rose Garden''. She played Aidan Quinn's grandmother in the television production of ''An Early Frost'' for which she won a Golden Globe Award, and she also played key roles in ''Beetlejuice'' (directed by longtime Sidney fan Tim Burton) and ''Used People'' (which co-starred Jessica Tandy, Marcello Mastroianni, Marcia Gay Harden, Kathy Bates and Shirley MacLaine).She also played in Damien Omen 2
Her swan song was in another film by Burton, ''Mars Attacks!'', in which she played a senile old lady whose Slim Whitman music stops an alien invasion from Mars because that particular music makes the Martians' heads explode.
On TV, she appeared as the imperious mother of Gordon Jump on the pilot episode of ''WKRP in Cincinnati''; as the troubled grandmother of Melanie Mayron in the comedy-drama ''Thirtysomething'' and, finally, as the crotchety travel clerk on the short-lived late-1990s revival of ''Fantasy Island'' with Malcolm McDowell, Fyvush Finkel and Mädchen Amick.

Personal life

Sidney was married three times, including to actor and acting teacher Luther Adler from 1938 until 1947, by whom she had her only child, a son, Jacob, who predeceased her. She died from throat cancer in New York City at the age of 88, after a career of more than 70 years.
Sidney has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contribution to Motion Pictures at 6245 Hollywood Boulevard.
During the filming of ''Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams'', costar Joanne Woodward remarked how she and her husband, Paul Newman, had a difficult time remembering their anniversary date. Later, Sidney surprised Woodward with a gift of a handmade pillow with the inscription "Paul and Joanne" and their anniversary date.

References

1. http://www.hitchcockwiki.com/hitchcock/index/the_guardian_(06%252fjul%252f1999)_-_obituary%253a_sylvia_sidney.html

External links

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★ Photographs of Sylvia Sidney