Sonja Henie, (born April 8, 1912, Kristiania [now Oslo], Norwaydied October 12, 1969, in an airplane en route to Oslo), Norwegian-born American world champion figure skater and Olympic gold medalist who went on to achieve success as a professional ice-skater and as a motion-picture actress. Three years later she married socialite Winthrop Gardner Jr., who divorced her in 1956. New York Times (October 13, 1969). Retrieved April 27, 2023 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/sonja-henie. Her mother was willing to travel all across Europe with her to find coaches and outdoor ice rinks. Henie kept her Hollywood home in Holmby Hills and enjoyed her Grundholtet villa in Norway and apartment in Lausanne, Switzerland. She herself earned over $200,000 from her film work alone in 1937. Complaints by Austrian skaters would result in new rules allowing only one judge per country for each event. Sonya Eddy, star of 'General Hospital,' dead at 55 | CNN Entries on Henie, many with further bibliographies, appear in Barbara Sicherman and Carol Hurd Green, eds., Notable American Women: The Modern Period: A Biographical Dictionary (1980); Robert J. Condon, The Fifty Finest Athletes of the 20th Century: A Worldwide Reference (1990); and Robert Markel, ed., The Women's Sports Encyclopedia (1997). From the Archives: Star Skater Sonja Henie Dies Sonja Henie, (born April 8, 1912, Kristiania , Norwaydied October 12, 1969, in an airplane en route to Oslo), Norwegian-born American world champion figure skater and Olympic gold medalist who went on to achieve success as a professional ice-skater and as a motion-picture actress. As a result, her 1939 salary was more than $250,000. 3, Actors and Actresses (1986). [15], Also according to Kestnbaum, "Henie's largest contribution to public images of skating"[15] was in her professional ice shows and in her Hollywood films, which were often the first time audiences were exposed to figure skating through the mass media. In 1921, at Oslo's Frogner Stadium, Henie competed in and won Norway's highest junior level of competition. She'd parlayed 10 world championships and three Olympic gold medals into an enormously. She entered her first Olympic Winter Games the next year, primarily for experience, and took third place in the free skating competition. Kestnbaum argues that the costumes Henie wore in her shows and films, which were short, revealing, full of sequins and feathers, and more reminiscent of the costumes of female entertainers than of the clothes worn in the more conservative world of competitive figure skating of the time, most likely contributed to the "showiness" that influenced the costume choices of later generations of female competitive figure skaters.[15]. Sonja's marriage to Winthrop ended in 1956. Best Answer. Dividing her remaining years between homes in Norway and the United States, Henie lived happily with her third husband, Niels Onstad. 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. In 1923 she became the senior national champion of Norway. It was an ill-advised decision to set herself up in competition with Wirtz, whose shows now featured the new Olympic champion Barbara Ann Scott. She was 57. Born April 8, 1912, in Oslo, Norway, Henie was blessed from the beginning with every attribute a skater might need. Sonja Henie's Night, an exhibition that played before and during the intermission of ice hockey games at Madison Square Garden during March 1936, was a success. Zanuck first cast Henie in One in a Million (1936), which also starred Don Ameche, Adolphe Menjou, and the Ritz Brothers. With Sonja Henie, Jack Oakie, Cesar Romero, Carole Landis. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. But Henie will be best remembered for putting skating above the personal and political. 20th Century-Fox and debuted in, - IMDb Mini Biography By: Tony Fontana . There, Henie won her second gold medal in figure skating, with 2,302.5 points. She wore jewels during practice and plumes during competition.. -- Sonja Henie OSLO, Norway -- She was the first to spin, the first to jump, the first to be crowned a figure skating ice queen. at Graumann's Chinese Theatre. "Sonja Henie's tutu!" Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. The international star had managed to keep her illness a secret and was seen with her husband at an Oslo theater less than two weeks before her death. Loveland continued, "she seems to float, like something in gossamer wings, but anyone tempted to drift off into an ethereal realm is brought back by a pair of very shapely limbs, which move with the smoothness of running water and the strength of youth." [14] Figure skating writer and historian Ellyn Kestnbaum credits Henie with transforming figure skating into what she calls "a spectacle of the skater's body" and for "shifting [the sport's] meanings firmly in the direction of femininity". She was signed by 20th Century-Fox and debuted in One in a Million (1936), in which she played an ice skater. In 1968, the Onstads donated 250 of their paintings, plus $3.5 million for a fan-shaped stone-and-glass museum near Oslo. . The former NCIS star shared the heartbreaking news Saturday that his younger brother Will Weatherly died on Thursday, April 20. Sonja Henie. Already exposed to Norway's favorite sport, skiing, Henie preferred figure skating; she loved the "whirling" sensation of ice-skating and the resulting "sense of power" over distance and gravity. Sonja loved Later in 1927 Henie saw the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova dance in London.

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