European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 29, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 20 the stars and stripes thursday september 29,1977 modern living by Walt Trott g ale Sondergaard is a survivor the living portrait of a free 78, the stage and screen actress seems to radiate a sort of inner peace and Tranquility that was too Long lacking. Her step is still Lively her eyes Shine with an enthusiasm for projects yet to come and her whole being seems to exude a vitality to keep up the struggle. You have to believe in yourself. Hang on and Don t give she spoke slowly thoughtfully As she gazed into the Mirror to apply her stage makeup. The preparation was for a matinee As the matriarch of the Royal family in Ogunquit Maine a coastal resort 50 Miles North of Boston. She and Sandy Dennis were in the seven week touring Stock revival of the Edna Ferber George s. Kauf Man play. Sondergaard scored her first smash stage Success in Eugene o Neill s strange interlude and later Wood s first Best supporting actress Oscar for her screen Bow in the 1936 classic Anthony Adverse. Though she earned a second Academy award nomination a decade later in Anna and the King of Siam her movie career was Cut Short when she and director husband Herbert Biberman became embroiled in the Mccarthy red Witch Hunt in Holly Wood. In 1947, sen. Joseph Mccarthy instigated the investigation of alleged in american activities in the him world. Studio chiefs Louis b. Mayer and Jack Warner along with such notables As director Sam Wood who directed Sondergaard in lord be appeared before the congressional committee to name and denounce those whom they suspected of being communist sympathizers. The hearings developed a roster of Industry people accused of being communists. Director Biberman s name was on the list known widely As the unfriendly Holly Wood 10." in december 1947, the studio Powers banded together and blacklisted them. Caught up in the panic that Fol Lowed were such figures As writers Lillian Hellman and Clifford Odets directors John Cromwell and Elia Kazan and players John Garfield Sterling Hayden Anne Revere and Sondergaard. Guilt by association became the order of the Day. After his experience Biberman wrote Salt of the Earth hoping to bring it to the screen. But Sondergaard recalled no one would finance it no studio would touch Biberman s career was ail but Over. His wife said a bitter blow was being blackballed by his colleagues from the screen director s Guild. She fared no better. Mem s Slick soap opera East Side West Side with Barbara Stanwyck and Ava Gardner served As her own Swan song for two decades. Her Hus band died six years ago. Though she will talk about those Days the actress says there s no Point in dwelling upon it. I understand it historically. Many things like that happen. There were the Kun flux klan the prejudices against Sacco and Vanzetti during their trial the feeling against the jews and the Blacks. 1 Learned Early about she feels the events strengthened her As a performer whatever i have gained is an accumulation of every thing. All of life has an effect upon you As an actress time seems to have been on her Side. A few years ago she was invited Back to the film Colony to present an award from the screen director s Guild to John Crom Well who directed her in Anna and the King of Siam it was quite a night. There i was the widow of her Bert Biberman who had been expelled by the Guild and i was paying a tribute to a Man who had also taken a stand. The applause i received was thunderous. But i be been getting that kind of response everywhere i last year she devoted her energies to touring on behalf of a movie documentary Hollywood on trial thai won High acclaim at the Cannes film festival and an Oscar nomination. It was based in part on her husband s experiences during the red though that film did not win the award a significant happening occurred at the Oscar telecast this year when Lillian Hellman making her triumphal return to Holly Wood received a standing ovation. She was among those ostracized during the Mccarthy Era. My husband was the kind of Man who would dance on his grave if he knew that such a picture would be made and so honoured by the Academy of motion picture arts and she was directed Only twice by her husband. The first time was in the 1930s when she co starred with Franchot tone in the new York theater Guild production of red rust a play about the soviet Union. Then i did a Cameo Small role for him in slaves the last picture he directed. Of course it was t a Hollywood film it was an that 1969 feature co starring Stephen Boyd and Dionne Warwick was not a Box office Success. It did Mark Sondergaard s first screen appearance in 20 years. In her Only film since she appeared this year with Richard Harris in return of a Man called horse. The picture s not really that Good. But i Felt the role of the Indian woman was special. She motivates the Man. Though she has no sophistication Only simplicity she is very Nice. That s the kind of role that offers a Challenge in Edith Gale Sondergaard was born feb. 15, 1899, in Litchfield Minn. It was while earning her degree at the University of Minnesota that she first set her sights on an acting career. Unfortunately there were no courses in acting no school of drama at the University then. You had to strike out and find your own training ground. The last thing i Ever thought about As an actress was that i would be famous or make a lot of Money. It was just something in me that i had to smilingly she recalled her first acting experience and of being crushed because she was not cast As the ingenue. But i always remember the words of my director who told me it s too bad you can t be an Ordinary girl at an Ordinary Tea party. But you must never forget that you Are different. You have something special to offer " her tall dark slender appearance marked her Early As a character actress and that is How she has excelled in a career that has spanned More than half of a Century. Before making it to new York in 1928, where she per formed in Faust and Shaw s major Barbara there was an apprenticeship with a touring shakespearean troupe and then with the Jessie von Stelle Stock company. She was a hard taskmaster. She chose a play for me to appear in As a 14-year-old, then next As a Drunken woman. I told her that i just could t play such diverse roles but she said you Are an actress you can play any thing i became a leading woman in her Sondergaard s favorite role is that of Nina Leeds in strange interlude in which she gained Broadway Star Dom after replacing the ailing Judith Anderson. Nina is an exotic character but she is very real and one of the most delicious and longest parts in terms of a time Span Ever written for a woman in american drama she said pointing out that the character Ages from 20 to 45 during the play. Like Fanny in this play Royal family Nina Isa part that i feel i can make mine. Even though Eva Legallienne did Fannie originally she played her Aston gentle a woman. I feel As though i bring some thing different to it a strength or firmness a sort of emotional Quality. It seems to me As though that s Bow she was in recent years her stage credits have included Anas Tasia tango the Crucible a family and a Fortune and Uncle Vanya. Sondergaard performs occasionally on television and has made two to movies the cat creature in 74, and the soon to be shown pleasant Vule. Dpi Sondergaard receiving Oscar Statuette from Charlton Heston in 1973 for her 1936 role in the movie Anthony Adverse to replace the plaque that Oscar winners were Given in those Days. The tube has also created a sort of cult following for the actress As a result of her 1940s features such As the Black cat Sherlock Holmes and the spider woman in visible Man s revenge and the spider woman strikes Back on the late late shows. Those pictures came during a period when i was under contract to Universal studios. I did t like them All but today they Are what you Call Camp take the spider woman that is what you Call a technical performance. Even evil women i refused to play As ugly people. Surprisingly some of them came out for a time she was known As the woman you love to hate because she menaced the likes of Abbott and cos Tello in the time of their lives or Bing Crosby and Bob Hope in the Road to Rio. But there were also a number of big budget flicks some of which Are now classics including Juarez maid of Salem seventh heaven and the Oscar winning Best picture of 37, the life of Emile Zola. In Mother Goddam Bette Davis her costar in the Somerset maugham Story the letter said of Sondergaard her performance As the eurasian wife of the Man Leslie Crosbie Davis killed was breathtakingly sinister. I was so Lucky that she was cast in this the actress own recollection of that Effort was one of having to fight director William Wyler to play the charac Ter As dignified. They had some whorish costumes and makeup for her. It was the old racist thing. Just because she was half yellow they Felt that the White Man had de graded himself by marrying her. They could t see that he saw her As a Beautiful woman who had after a heated on set discussion she said Wyler threw his hands into the air and went Home when he came in the next Day he ordered All new costumes. But by play ing it that Way i think it made a stonger the Veteran actress has a one woman show she takes on the Road and Calls the woman. It consists of a series of readings. She has no plans to retire. When not working Home is los Angeles. She says she has no method of selecting what parts to do simply be cause i Don t get that Many offers. But i have to have Spe Cial kinds of a yoga devotee Sondergaard is also a health food Buff. It must agree with her for she appears at least 20 years younger. She is quite candid but still a very private person. The actress does t like to discuss the child she lost Early in her marriage or her two adopted children. Apparently she would like to Seesaw Between films and the theater i enjoy the intimacy of making movies but the stage has always been my love my Core. I am an actress who loves to
