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 intension 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; she accepted the part and was awarded the very first Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress. LeRoy originally cast her as the Wicked Witch in The Wizard of Oz, but she felt she was not right for that role. Instead, she co-starred opposite Paul Muni in The Life of Emile Zola, a film that won Best Picture in 1937. Sondergaard's most remembered role was that of the sinister and cunning wife of a husband murdered by Bette Davis' character in The Letter. Sondergaard continued her career rise in films such as Juarez, Anna and the King of Siam, The Mark of Zorro and The Black Cat. Unfortunately, she was blacklisted in the 1950s when she refused to testify during the McCarthy-inspired "Red Scare" hysteria in the 1950s. She eventually returned to films in the 1960s, and made her final appearance in the 1983 film Echoes. Gale Sondergaard passed away of an undisclosed illness at the Motion Picture & Television Hospital in Woodland Hills, California at the age of 86.
She was blacklisted with her husband in 1948. Her daughter died in October 1965. Was going to play the Wicked Witch of The West in the The Wizard of Oz, but instead of making the witch similar to Snow White's beautiful but wicked queen, as was originally planned, they decided the witch should be ugly. Gale then refused the role. Was one of the main inspirations for the look of the Evil Queen/Witch in Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and was ironically rejected {due to her looks as previously mentioned) as the evil witch in The Wizard of Oz, a film that sought to capitalize on the popularity of the former and fairy tales like it. In high school plays, she studied at the Minneapolis School of Dramatic Arts. Joined the Chatauqua theatre circuit in 1920 as an ingenue and a year later became a member of the John Keller Shakespeare Company where she toured Canada and America in productions of "Hamlet," "Julius Caesar," "The Merchant of Venice" and "Macbeth." First actress to win an Oscar for "Best Actress in a Supporting Role" (Anthony Adverse)