Gale Sondergaard height - How tall is Gale Sondergaard?

Unfortunately, she was blacklisted when she refused to testify during the McCarthy-inspired "Red Scare" hysteria in the 1950s.

After she was blacklisted in 1947, director Mervyn LeRoy, who had given her her first break in "Anthony Adverse," cast her in a supporting role as Barbara Stanwyck's mother in "East Side, West Side" in order to test industry reaction. The negative response to her appearance completed the blacklisting, and she didn't appear in another major Hollywood film film for 28 years.

Sondergaard's most-remembered role was that of the sinister and cunning wife of a husband murdered by Bette Davis' character in The Letter (1940).

LeRoy originally cast her as the Wicked Witch in The Wizard of Oz (1939), but she felt she was not right for that role.

Sondergaard continued her career rise in films such as Juarez (1939), The Mark of Zorro (1940), The Black Cat (1941), and Anna and the King of Siam (1946).

Despite popular belief, Sondergaard never signed a contract with Warners after winning an Oscar for "Anthony Adverse." She did sign a one-year contract with MGM in 1938 and a long-term deal with Universal, which produced 14 of her films between 1941 and 1947.

Instead, she co-starred opposite Paul Muni in The Life of Emile Zola (1937), a film that won Best Picture in 1937.

Sly, manipulative, dangerously cunning and sinister were the key words that best described the roles that Gale Sondergaard played in motion pictures, making her one of the most talented character actresses ever seen on the screen. She was educated at the University of Minnesota and later married director Herbert J. Biberman. Her husband went to find work in Hollywood and she reluctantly followed him there. Although she had extensive experience in stage work, she had no intention of becoming an actress in film. Her mind was changed after she was discovered by director Mervyn LeRoy, who offered her a key role in his film Anthony Adverse (1936); she accepted the part and was awarded the very first Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress.

Joined the Chautauqua theatre circuit in 1920 as an ingenue and a year later became a member of the John Keller Shakespeare Company, touring Canada and America in productions of "Hamlet," "Julius Caesar," "The Merchant of Venice" and "Macbeth.".

Daughter of Hans (1867-1947) and Kristine (née Hansen) Sondergaard (1872-1934). Both were born in Denmark, immigrating to America in 1892.