She enjoyed music and dance from an early age, studying ballet and after beginning her competitive skating career, admired the Russian ballet dancer Anna Pavlova after seeing her perform in London.[2]. About Sonja Henie. Her wide, dimpled smile, pixie eyes and blonde Nordic good looks made her a great favorite of audiences during the years of World War II. Encyclopedia.com. She was made a Knight First Class of the Order of St. Olaf by King Haakon of Norway, becoming the youngest person to receive this honor. Omissions? An obituary is in the New York Times (13 Oct. 1969). Both of Henie's parents had given up their own pursuits in Norwayleaving Leif to run the fur businessin order to accompany Sonja on her travels and act as her managers. Henie tried to break the musical comedy mould with the anti-Nazi film Everything Happens at Night (1939) and It's a Pleasure (1945), a skating variation of the often-told A Star Is Born tale about alcoholic-star-in-decline-helps-newcomer-up. Scott, Paula Pyzik "Henie, Sonja But Henie did not stop there. 10 time World Champion Women's Figure Skating according to A&E The daughter of a fur wholesaler in Norway, Sonja Henie received her first pair of ice skates when she was six. An excellent book that devotes much attention to Henie in the context of the development of skating is Nigel Brown, Ice-Skating: A History (1959). Likewise, her films are still enjoyable, but their style and that of her skating is dated. "Nobody hit me in the leg or tried to shoot me, but there were some likenesses to what's happening now." Sonja Henie would have been 57 years old at the time of death or 103 years old today. (June 6, 1956 - October 12, 1969) (her death), (September 15, 1949 - May 14, 1956) (divorced), (July 4, 1940 - February 13, 1946) (divorced), View agent, publicist, legal and company contact details on IMDbPro. She also lit the entire performance with a dazzling, dimpled smile. Sonja Henie made her Olympic debut at the first Olympic Winter Games in Chamonix in 1924. Modern figure skating is deeply indebted to Sonja Henie (1912-1969), one of the greatest athletes of this century. Henie returned to the United States in 1932 for more exhibitions and for the third Winter Olympic Games at Lake Placid, New York. [3][19] She is buried with Onstad in Oslo on the hilltop overlooking the Henie Onstad Art Centre. Sonja Henie - Facts, Bio, Favorites, Info, Family | Sticky Facts at Graumann's Chinese Theatre. [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 had often performed in Germany and her popularity This answer is: Study guides. Troubles in Henie's film career were not mirrored in her popularity as a live performer. In 1921, at Oslo's Frogner Stadium, Henie competed in and won Norway's highest junior level of competition. 8 April 1912 in Oslo, Norway; d. 12 October 1969 on a Paris-to-Oslo plane flight), champion figure skater who won three consecutive Olympic gold medals and most Norwegian, European, and world figure skating championships. Her name and likeness were mentioned and portrayed by an ice skating Donald Duck in Walt Disney's 1939 The Hockey Champ. In 1951 Wirtz and Henie were unable to agree on a contract and parted ways. appeared on the cover of Time magazine and her skates were immortalized Henie improved rapidly and by 1926 she was . She is one of only two skaters to defend a ladies' singles Olympic title, the other being Katarina Witt, and her six European titles has only been matched by Witt. But the fourteen-year-old Henie was too small to wear such heavy garb; it tended to act like a sail and tangle in her legs. 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. She was 57. She remembered in the Sporting News how Henie had screamed at her after the 1933 World Championship competition, saying she was an unworthy opponent. [7] She did not make the final list however. Henie also insisted on having total control of the skating numbers in her films such as Second Fiddle (1939). I want to do with skates what Fred Astaire is doing with dancing. [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". Once Henie began serious training as a figure skater, her formal schooling ended. Henie went on to win a total of three Olympic figure skating championships: she also won gold medals at Lake Placid, New York in 1932 and at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Bavaria in 1936. was a frequent exclaimatory utterance by Tom and Ray Magliozzi on the National Public Radio show Car Talk. Sonja Henie was born on April 8, 1912 and died on October 12, 1969. Sonia Henie, as controversial as she was legendary. Her father was a wealthy fur salesman and a former amateur cycling champion who encouraged his children to compete. Private tutors were hired to educate her while she concentrated on her skating. (April 27, 2023). She finished in last place. 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. For a time she had her own company, Sonja Henie's Hollywood Ice Revue, but an unfortunate bleacher collapse at one of her shows caused the venture to fold. It would later house all of Henie's skating memorabilia. Ice-T appeared on the music scene in 1987 with a new style: gangster rap, which offers rhymes about crimea, ice skating, gliding along an ice surface on keellike runners known as ice skates. [10], During the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany, German troops saw Hitler's autographed photo prominently displayed at the piano in the Henie family home in Landya, Asker. https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/sonja-henie, "Sonja Henie In 1956, Sonja Henie married for the third time. Said to have had a keen business sense, she early acquired the nickname Little Miss Moneybags for her habit of prudent investments. Henie won more Olympic and World titles than any other . At the age of ten she Sonja Henie. With her was her third husband, Norwegian shipping magnate Niels Onstad. 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. OSLO, Oct. 12 (AP)--Sonja Henie, ice-skating queen and film star, died tonight on an ambulance plane flying from Paris to Oslo. Sonja Henie Death Fact Check, Birthday & Date of Death - Dead or Kicking Critic Roy Hemming enthused about the film when it was among seven video releases made at the time of the 1994 Olympics. Controversy appeared first when Henie greeted Hitler with a Nazi salute at the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and after the Games she accepted an invitation to lunch with Hitler at his resort home in nearby Berchtesgaden, where Hitler presented Henie with an autographed photo with a lengthy inscription. Henie did not appear in these shows, but rather was an advisor and financial partner. Her union with American sports investor (and later owner of the New York Yankees) Daniel Reid Topping lasted from 1940 to 1946, likely a victim to her grueling film production and touring schedules. Frogner Stadium was the site of the 1927 Women's World Figure Skating 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. She herself earned over $200,000 from her film work alone in 1937. Not long after the center's lavish opening celebration, Henie was diagnosed with leukemia. However, she held off these competitors and went on to win her third Olympic title at the 1936 Winter Olympics, albeit in very controversial circumstances with Cecilia Colledge finishing a very close second. Became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1941. Henie opened up opportunities for figure skaters to use their skills to earn a living. She defended her Olympic titles in 1932 and in 1936, and her world titles annually until 1936. 1932 The daughter of a fur wholesaler in Norway, Sonja Henie received her first pair of ice skates when she was six. After she complained to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, the guard was summoned to apologize for the incident. 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. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Her jumps and spins seem ridiculously easy compared to the athletic feats of contemporary figure skaters. How did Sonja Henie die? | Homework.Study.com Skater Sonja Henie 'Put A Dollar Sign' Behind The Gold playing tennis and she excelled at ice-skating. In the effort, she exercised the same mental intensity and financial resources that were the foundation of her earlier work. Darryl During the twentieth century no competitor was able to match Henie's three consecutive Olympic gold medals in women's figure skating. Far from being discouraged, the youngster poured all her energies into skating. "Even on the podium after the Olympics, there were no kisses, no handshakes, not even a word." 2019Encyclopedia.com | All rights reserved. She had also performed for European royalty and presented a skating version of Pavlova's "Dying Swan" that was first seen in Milan, Italy in 1933. In 1927, she won her first world figure skating championship in Oslo, and retained the title for the next nine years. Miss Henie, ill for the past nine months, died aboard an ambulance plane from Paris to her native Oslo, only minutes before landing. After taking informal lessons at a local skating club, Henie won her first figure skating competition at age nine. In her autobiography, Wings on My Feet, Henie explained that the primary factor facilitating her being so "lucky" in achieving her skating goals was her family's wealth. 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). She became a United States citizen in 1941. Henie's brother speaks of her extremely violent temper in Raymond Strait and Leif Henie, Queen of Ice, Queen of Shadows: The Unsuspected Life of Sonja Henie (1985). She had to concentrate on her profession, and fulfill contracts, really from the age of nine on," he explained. In the fall of 1968 Henie was diagnosed with leukemia. Her husband, Neils Onstad, a Norwegian shipowner, said she "just slept away" halfway through the two-hour flight. Sonja Henie's skating partner cut swath in PR world [citation needed], Henie became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1940. "Sonja Henie She broke with her manager in 1951, and began producing shows on her own, but gave them up after a block of seats at a Baltimore armory collapsed before a show in March, 1952, injuring more than 250 people. Practicing as much as seven hours a day, she studied with teachers in Germany, England, Switzerland and Austria. Her last film, Hello London (1958), received only limited showings in parts of England. . Wiki User. ." 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. (Getty Images) I saw a tweet this week from Kiira Korpi, the Finnish figure skater who won medals three times at the European Championships . A little "meowing" before Ms. Henie takes the ice. Over the next decade Miss Henie won Olympic titles at St. Moritz, Switzerland (1928), at Lake Placid (1932), and at Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Bavaria (1936). Her fur-trimmed costume Short skirts and choreography were unknown in figure skating before Henie introduced them in the late 1920s. When their daughter showed a special passion for skating at about age six, which she began under the instruction of her brother Leif, they provided her with whatever training she required. In a 1999 account for Newsweek, silver-medal holder Cecilia Colledge also remembered competing against Henie in the 1936 Olympic games. skating even more. 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. Henie was portrayed in the 2018 Anne Sewitsky film Sonja The White Swan, shown at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.[26][27][28]. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sonja-Henie, Sonja Henie - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). It was not just the sheer quantity of her titles and awards or profits from skating in revues and from motion pictures that distinguished her, but rather the unique quality of her skating, her innovative influence on the development of women's competitive skating, and her overall creative artistry and ingenuity, for which she has secured a unique niche in the history of figure skating. However, these are not Henie's most enduring achievements. With Sonja Henie, Jack Oakie, Cesar Romero, Carole Landis. She'd parlayed 10 world championships and three Olympic gold medals into an enormously. Scott Thorson: How Liberace Protected His 'Big Secret' in the 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. She also began staging and appearing in ice shows, in association with Arthur Wirtz, her business manager, and these, too, were very successful--with lavish costumes and spectacular routines. He hopped on a train, reached Chicago the next day, rushed to her hotel, and sharpened the skates with a hand stone--a few minutes work. Her autobiography Mitt livs eventyr was published in 1938. Henie was the world's first great figure skater. Beginning in 1927, at just 14 years old, figure skater Sonja Henie glided onto the world stage and dominated the icenot only revolutionizing her sport with 10 consecutive world championships. She also forbade the skaters in her chorus from wearing hairpins, after having fallen and broken ribs because of a pin on the ice. In cooperation with promoter Wirtz, Henie honed her skills as a producer of ice shows as well as maintained her prowess as a skater. In 1953, Henie formed a new partnership with Morris Chalfen to appear in his European Holiday On Ice tour, which proved to be a great success. Public interest in Henie has fueled continued debate about her off-ice and off-screen behavior. 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. Her father, Hans Wilhelm Henie, was a successful fur trader and amateur athlete, and her mother, Selma Lochman Nielsen, inherited her family's wealth.
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