She had already delighted in dancing, and--with her brother Leif giving her her first lessons--enjoyed A huge star in the 1930s and '40s, she was also divisive and controversial. Encyclopedia.com. She earned at least $25 million from her lucrative motion-picture career. 1948- Later programs included her famous hula sketch. She grew up in a As a result, her 1939 salary was more than $250,000. Henie's autobiography, written with Janet Owen, is Wings on My Feet (1940). Her first American film, One in a Million (1936) , starring Don Ameche and Adolphe Menjou, opened in New York in 1936 and quickly grossed $2 million. Therefore, be sure to refer to those guidelines when editing your bibliography or works cited list. Her skating built on the innovative styles of Jackson Haines and Hilda Holowsky. When Zanuck realized this, he cast her in more musical comedies; Sun Valley Serenade (1941) with Glenn Miller, John Payne, The Nicholas Brothers, and hit songs such as "In the Mood", "Chattanooga Choo Choo", "It Happened in Sun Valley", and "I Know Why (And So Do You)"; followed by Iceland (1942) with Jack Oakie, Payne, and the hit song "There Will Never Be Another You"; and finally Wintertime (1943) with Cesar Romero, Carole Landis, Cornel Wilde, and Oakie. OSLO, Oct. 12 (AP)--Sonja Henie, ice-skating queen and film star, died tonight on an ambulance plane flying from Paris to Oslo. During the twentieth century no competitor was able to match Henie's three consecutive Olympic gold medals in women's figure skating. The pictures were reported to have grossed $25-million. Michael Weatherly is mourning the loss of his brother. She is said to be one of the best figure skaters in history. Another accusation that hurt Henie's image was the perception that she was a Nazi sympathizer. "Henie skates with speed, grace, and eye-boggling abandon through four big numbers," he noted in Entertainment Weekly. She later competed successfully in tennis and auto racing in the midst of her skating career. Subsequently, she appeared on television several times, including her own one-hour special. After taking informal lessons at a local skating club, Henie won her first figure skating competition at age nine. It recounted that her appearance had been a front-page story in which Roelif Loveland had written "there is no simile to express adequately the grace and loveliness of this glamorous young woman." Though Metro-Goldwin-Mayer (MGM) had expressed interest in her after the 1936 Olympics, when she arrived in the United States Henie and her father planned a gala skating exhibition 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]. Her performance, skating "at home" in Norway's Frogner Stadium, earned her the first of ten consecutive world figure skating titles (and the distinction of being the youngest world champion until Tara Lipinski edged her out in 1997 by a margin of thirty-two days). No other skater before or since has dominated the sport as thoroughly as Henie did between 1927 and 1936. Burial. In January 1930, after additional success in winning Norway's skating doubles championship three times, she impressed her first New York City audience of 15,000 at the amateur Ice Carnival exhibition at Madison Square Garden. Her brother, Leif Henie, coauthored Queen of Ice, Queen of Shadows: The Unsuspected Life of Sonja Henie (1985), in which he discussed her violent temper. 1932 The daughter of a fur wholesaler in Norway, Sonja Henie received her first pair of ice skates when she was six. Following the success of Thin Ice, Henie showed her growing business savvy by getting Twentieth Century-Fox to renegotiate her contract. She was to have danced to "Lara's Theme" from Doctor Zhivago. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Dividing her remaining years between homes in Norway and the United States, Henie lived happily with her third husband, Niels Onstad. In 1968, the Onstads donated 250 of their paintings, plus $3.5 million for a fan-shaped stone-and-glass museum near Oslo. Her name and appearance was shown in episode 285 of MASH 4077. Henie was the greatest of all women figure skaters from the 1920s to the 1940s, and perhaps of the entire twentieth century. He was 85. For this, she was condemned by many Norwegians and Norwegian-Americans. April 08, 1912 Died October 12, 1969 Cause of Death Leukemia Biography Read More Winner of the Olympic Gold medal in figure skating an impressive three times in a row (1928, 1932, 1936), Henie came to Twentieth Century-Fox shortly after her last win and was built up as a popular star. Notable Sports Figures. Her contribution to skating is secure, however, because she combined all of the elements so important to the sport today: high drama, athletic prowess, and star power. Her mother traveled When Geoffrey and Ken track Norden to a small village in the Swiss Alps, they soon find themselves competing over the affections of beautiful Louise (Henie), who has a deeper connection to the missing Nobel laureate than the reporters realize. On a hilltop overlooking the Henie-Onstad Museum. Her animated counterpart appeared in the Disney short, The Autograph Hound when Donald asked for her autograph. 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. It is her effect on the sport of figure skating that is unrivaled. The intensity of Henie's commitment to skating was further intensified after competing in the first winter Olympics, in Chamonix, France, in 1924. [2], Kestnbaum argues that although Henie's skating was "athletic and powerful for her day",[2] she purposively added elements,such as using the toepicks of her skates to run or pose on the ice, in movements similar to the use of pointe technique in ballet, that undercut her power and athleticism. Omissions? Both Hans and Selma became deeply involved in Sonja's skating career. Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives, Thematic Series: Sports Figures. Although Trudi does no skating in her screen test, she makes the grade. When she returned the following year, she secured the women's national championship title and, as part of her record-making legacy, would come back the subsequent six years to retain that title. The results of 1927 World Championships, where Henie won in 32 decision (or 7 vs. 8 ordinal points) over the defending Olympic and World Champion Herma Szabo of Austria, was controversial, as three of the five judges that gave Henie first-place ordinals were Norwegian (1 + 1 + 1 + 2 + 2 = 7 points) while Szabo received first-place ordinals from an Austrian and a German Judge (1 + 1 + 2 + 2 + 2 = 8 points). During sixteen years of touring she earned something in the range of $10 million and her movies probably netted her more than $25 million. She produced her own show at New York's Roxy Theatre in January 1956. Sonja Henie would have been 57 years old at the time of death or 103 years old today. She married Niels Onstad, a Norwegian shipping magnate. The collapse of a section of bleachers during a show in Baltimore, Maryland in 1952 compounded the tour's legal and financial woes. At age seven Henie learned to skate from her elder and only brother, Leif. What Shows Have Been Renewed or Canceled? 1936 her father financed an extravagant ice show in Hollywood. However, being a naturalized citizen of the United States effectively put a stop to any propaganda on her behalf until Pearl Harbor. decided to become a US citizen and supported the USO in their efforts. While we were in Paris she suddenly became much worse and she was examined by a doctor, he said. Henie was not judged to be responsible for the incident, but she decided not to hold any more arena-style shows. Because she was still a child, she competed in a knee-length skirt, rather than the calf-length outfits the older women wore. By 1939 she was one of the highest paid actresses in Hollywood. These honors were the result of talent, intensive training, and an interest in doing something different from other skaters. Won 3 olympic gold medals between 1928 and 1936. At 15 she would win the Olympic gold medal in Time (July 17, 1939): 51-54. Another measure of her worth is that in 1940 her legs were insured by Lloyds of London for $5,000 per week. Her last film, Hello London (1958), received only limited showings in parts of England. Sun Valley Serenade (1941), in which Henie appeared with John Payne and Glenn Miller and His Orchestra, is memorable for its Academy Award nominations for best cinematography, best music, and best song. 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). playing tennis and she excelled at ice-skating. She won the children's figure skating championship of Oslo when she was 8, and two years later, in 1923, she won the figure skating championship of Norway. The early start was seen as a disadvantage, with the audience not yet whipped into a clapping frenzy and the judges known to become freer with their higher marks as the event proceeded. 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 died a year later at age fifty-seven. It featured spectacular costumes and included waltz and hula dances. But the minute I skate in them I become a professional, so why shouldnt I go on tour?. Later in 1927 Henie saw the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova dance in London. Sonia Henie, as controversial as she was legendary. Years later, a fairer, staggered draw was adopted to counteract this situation".[4]. She was showcased in the Hollywood Ice Revue, which began in 1938 and continued for twelve years in cities across the United States. Retrieved April 27, 2023 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/sonja-henie. 27 Apr. The pretty, blond skater stood out among the competitors in a white silk and ermine skating dress that had a short skirt. She divorced Daniel and married Winthrop Gardner, a wealthy aviator, in Became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1941. "When Cleveland fell under Sonja's spell 64 years ago, Henie's visit enchanted the city." A year later she won Oslos junior skating championship. Henie initially showed talent at skiing, then followed her older brother, Leif, to take up figure skating. Henie has won more Olympic and World titles than any other ladies' figure skater. While traveling with her husband in Europe, she became uncomfortably ill in Paris. An excellent video documentary directed and produced by Edvard Hambro is entitled Sonja Henie: Queen of the Ice (1993). Henie secured the subsequent nine consecutive world titles, fostering suspicion among the Austrians, who complained that three of the five judges had been Norwegians; soon each country would be allowed only one judge per event. She Henie did not appear in these shows, but rather was an advisor and financial partner. She finished in last place. Henie began skating when she was six years old. Three times the Olympic figure-skating champion, Miss Henie won most of the major world skating titles from 1927 to 1936, when she turned professional. Sonja Henie (8 April 1912 12 October 1969) was a Norwegian figure skater and film star. Entertainment Weekly (February 11, 1994): 62. 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. afforded her greater ease of movement, and she performed some moves that were downright shocking for the time, including a jump into a sit spin. Sonja won her first ice-skating competition. The couple decided to build a museum for their collection, and in 1968 donated 250 works to the Sonja Henie-Niels Onstad Art Center outside of Oslo. Her fur-trimmed costume About Sonja Henie. Henie died in her sleep on an ambulance plane that was taking her from Paris to Oslo to see a specialist. Wings On My Feet, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1940. She was strongly denounced in the Norwegian press for this. As a result, none of Henie's properties in Norway were confiscated or damaged by the Germans. same year she married shipping magnate Niels Onstad. Knisley, Michael. Then, copy and paste the text into your bibliography or works cited list. Her mother was willing to travel all across Europe with her to find coaches and outdoor ice rinks. Henie was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia in the mid-1960s. The band goes to Ellis Island to meet the girl and soon discovers that the refugee isn't a 10-year-old child, but a young woman, Karen Benson ( Sonja Henie ). [1], Henie began skating at the age of 5. Henie broke off her arrangement with Wirtz in 1950 and for the next three seasons produced her own tours under the name "Sonja Henie Ice Revue". advertisement (b. Age at Death: 57. Critic Roy Hemming enthused about the film when it was among seven video releases made at the time of the 1994 Olympics. In 1940 Sonja married businessman Daniel 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). Second Fiddle displays Sonja [Henie] as Trudi Hovland, a schoolmarm of Bergen, Minn. who is called to Hollywood because her local swain has sent her photograph to Consolidated Pictures Corp., which has been looking high & low for just such a heroine. These activities made her one of the wealthiest self-made women in the world in her time. Encyclopedia.com. 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. She announced then that she was turning professional, and toured the United States in an ice show. Less than a month later, she was married to a childhood friend, Niels Onstad, who had become a shipping magnate and art collector. https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/henie-sonja, "Henie, Sonja With Sonja Henie, Jack Oakie, Cesar Romero, Carole Landis. She took a largely unnoticed, technically-oriented sport and turned it into a dynamic art form that, along with its star performers, is avidly followed by fans around the world. She became a household name for her excellence in figure skating, winning ten world championships, six European. Sonja Henie. She made one film each with RKO and Universal in the following years, and in 1958 appeared in Hello London, which was only released in England. She appeared in the film Thin Ice and was rated in a Motion Picture Herald poll as the eighth most popular film star of the year. Her third and final marriage was to fellow Norwegian Niels Onstad, a shipping magnate, on 9 June 1956. It was also noted in Queen of Ice, Queen of Shadows that before the war started the Henies had visited with Adolf Hitler and that during a 1936 show in Berlin she had given him the Nazi salute and said "Heil, Hitler.". Members of the audience paid up to $4.40 for the chance to see Henie. Hans was himself very athletic; among his diverse pursuits, he was a former world champion in bicycling. In cooperation with promoter Wirtz, Henie honed her skills as a producer of ice shows as well as maintained her prowess as a skater. Now I arrive at the Garden at 6:45 and I never stop until 11:10. 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. [citation needed], Henie is credited with being the first figure skater to use dance choreography, to adopt the short skirt in figure skating, and to wear white boots,[12] which deemphasized the heaviness of skates and produced a lighter and longer appearance of the skater's legs that was "a focal point for judges' and spectators' gaze". During the shooting of Second Fiddle (1939), she greeted the then Crown-Prince couple of Norway Olav and Mrtha during their US tour. At age 10 she won the Norwegian national figure-skating championship, and in 1924 she competed in the Winter Olympic Games in Chamonix, France. Sonja Henie was born on April 8, 1912 and died on October 12, 1969. A 2002 article in the (Cleveland) Plain Dealer reflected Henie's impact in these shows, an accomplishment undimmed by the passing of sixty-four years. Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives, Thematic Series: Sports Figures, Hamill, Dorothy 12 Oct 1969 (aged 57) Oslo, Oslo kommune, Oslo fylke, Norway. [6] Happy Landing (1938) was her biggest box office hit. Modern figure skating is deeply indebted to Sonja Henie (1912-1969), one of the greatest athletes of this century. Honorary Colonel and Godmother of the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, For a time, Sonja Henie's picture adorned the tail of a, This page was last edited on 23 April 2023, at 13:57. Plain Dealer (January 16, 2002). In addition to her acting Sonja toured The tour did not, however, result in the film contract Henie desired. Henie became so popular with the public that police had to be called out for crowd control on her appearances in various disparate cities such as Prague and New York City. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Wilhelm Henie had been a one-time World Cycling Champion and the Henie children were encouraged to take up a variety of sports at a young age. Sonja Henie, blonde Norwegian figure skater who dominated the rink for a decade and then skated her way to a second fabulous career in films, died Sunday of leukemia. Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. "Gee-Whizzer." She was among 250 female stars who were nominated for "50 Greatest Screen Legend" status by the American Film Institute. She did not die from her leukemia; but she died of a hemorrhage caused by change in air pressure in the jet flying from Paris to Oslo. Henie-Onstad museum. A petite, glamorous woman with a taste for luxury and a shrewd business sense, she was immensely successful next with a series of her own ice revues, and prospered as a motion picture star. 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." Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives, Thematic Series: Sports Figures. In 1927, at the tender age of 14, she won the first of ten consecutive world championships. [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. Skating, a feat she would repeat in 1932 and 1936. He named Henie as the instigator. The daughter of a fur wholesaler in Norway, Sonja Henie received her first pair of ice skates when she was six. She was a three-time Olympic champion ( 1928, 1932, 1936) in women's singles, a ten-time World champion (1927-1936) and a six-time European champion (1931-1936). Henie was portrayed in the 2018 Anne Sewitsky film Sonja The White Swan, shown at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.[26][27][28]. She telegraphed her maid and told her to place a picture of her with Hitler, which he had autographed, in a prominent place in her house. deals. And most importantly, she hired the best skaters and choreographers and paid them handsomely. Coached by Swedish Olympic medalist Gillis Grafstrm, she transformed a predictable series of colourless exercises into a spectacular and popular exhibition. [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. She was signed by 20th Century-Fox and debuted in One in a Million (1936), in which she played an ice skater. During a career that spanned the 1920s, '30s, '40s, and '50s, the Norwegian skater made major contributions to women's figure skating, which would help propel the sport into the prominence it now enjoys as a dazzling, physically-challenging, personality-filled field. Henie kept her Hollywood home in Holmby Hills and enjoyed her Grundholtet villa in Norway and apartment in Lausanne, Switzerland. In 1940 she married millionaire-sportsman Dan Topping, from whom she was divorced in 1946. From the Archives: Don Ameche, Dapper Film Star, Dies at 85, From the Archives: Andy Warhol, Pioneer of 60s Pop Art, Dies, From the Archives: Jazz Great Thelonious Monk Dies, From the Archives: Armand Hammer Dies; Billionaire, Art Patron, From the Archives: Buster Crabbe, Athlete, Hero of Serials, Dies. However, the date of retrieval is often important. . 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). At 14 she was the Norwegian Skating Champion. She managed to tie together the elements in her routine in way that had not been done before. Sports Illustrated (February 14, 1994): 18. In a 1999 account for Newsweek, silver-medal holder Cecilia Colledge also remembered competing against Henie in the 1936 Olympic games. He died of Tularmia (Rabbit . Henie Onstad Kunstsenter Grounds. [3][19] She is buried with Onstad in Oslo on the hilltop overlooking the Henie Onstad Art Centre. At 14 she was the Norwegian Skating Champion. Her name and likeness were mentioned and portrayed by an ice skating Donald Duck in Walt Disney's 1939 The Hockey Champ. Encyclopedia of World Biography. At the height of her acting career, she was one of the highest-paid stars in Hollywood and starred in a series of box-office hits, including Thin Ice (1937), Happy Landing, My Lucky Star (1938), Second Fiddle (1939) and Sun Valley Serenade (1941). (Read Scott Hamiltons Britannica essay on "Training for Olympic Gold."). The skater turned professional later that same year, after having won her tenth world championship. Henie went on to win first of her three Olympic gold medals the following year, becoming one of the youngest figure skating Olympic champions. Moreover, her skating numbers were fantastic. 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.

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