. She was the first woman figure skater to wear short skirts above the knee. She made seventeen performances in nine cities and earned phenomenal box office returns. Sonja Henie, Skating Star, Dies - The New York Times All of her films "Remembering Sonja Henie." 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. Name variations: Sonia Henje. Miss Henie, ill for the past nine months, died aboard an ambulance plane from Paris to her native Oslo, only minutes before landing. In addition to the MLA, Chicago, and APA styles, your school, university, publication, or institution may have its own requirements for citations. 3, Actors and Actresses (1986). 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. Hans Henie died that year, at a time when his daughter's career had reached amazing heights. Sonja Henie (1912-1969) - Find a Grave Memorial [citation needed] The Royal Family were very mindful of whom they supported after the war[11] and Norwegians looked to them as role models in that respect. During her lifetime Sonja Henie reigned as the "queen of ice," and today she remains the most influential individual to have been part of figure skating. ed. Time (July 17, 1939): 51-54. (April 27, 2023). The family also fully appreciated Henie's interest in sports. "Henie, Sonja advertisement Five thousand potential ticket-buyers had to be turned away when she returned to Madison Square Garden in 1937 with the start of her Hollywood Ice Revue. So the skating star created her own ice show, Sonja Henie with Her 1952 Ice Revue. During the twentieth century no competitor was able to match Henie's three consecutive Olympic gold medals in women's figure skating. At 14 she was the Norwegian Skating Champion. It was an open secret that, in spite of the strict amateurism requirements of the time, Wilhelm Henie demanded "expense money" for his daughter's skating appearances. During the latter part of her competitive career she was coached primarily by the American Howard Nicholson in London. [citation needed]. She produced her own show at New York's Roxy Theatre in January 1956. Knisley, Michael. Already exposed to Norway's favorite sport, skiing, Henie preferred figure skating; she loved the "whirling" sensation of ice-skating and the resulting "sense of power" over distance and gravity. At home in Oslo, she trained at Frogner Stadium, where her coaches included Hjrdis Olsen and Oscar Holte. In 1968, the Onstads donated 250 of their paintings, plus $3.5 million for a fan-shaped stone-and-glass museum near Oslo. . Sources Encyclopedia.com gives you the ability to cite reference entries and articles according to common styles from the Modern Language Association (MLA), The Chicago Manual of Style, and the American Psychological Association (APA). Dolgan, Bob. Sonja Henie - IMDb She grew up in a After the 1936 World Figure Skating Championships, Henie gave up her amateur status and took up a career as a professional performer in acting and live shows. Henie did not have any children and became an active collector with her new husband. In the effort, she exercised the same mental intensity and financial resources that were the foundation of her earlier work. 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. She therefore made the best of it and won her third Olympic medal. After Henie won the world championship one last time in 1936, she prepared to retire from amateur sports and enter professional skating. Henie has won more Olympic and World titles than any other ladies' figure skater. Henie was drinking heavily at that time and could no longer keep up with the demands of touring, and this marked her retirement from skating. Long, black skirts were the norm, being both modest and warm. In the mid-1970s, American figure skater Dorothy Hamill was the leader in her field, capping her success, Skating accent audiences loved her. Henie's sense of drama, athletic perfection, and graceful, balletic performances wrought a permanent change in figure skating and paved the way for today's skating superstars. Weatherly did not disclose his brother's cause of death as he paid emotional tribute alongside a throwback photo of himself and Will playing on the beach as children. Henie entered her first Olympic competition in 1924, when she was 11 years old. At the time, she was only 11 years old and she had to punctuate her free skating routine with frequent visits to the sidelines to ask her coach what she should do next. These shows, the "Hollywood Ice Revues," were major attractions at Madison Square Garden for many years, up to 1952. controversy. 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. Hemming, Roy. Public interest in Henie has fueled continued debate about her off-ice and off-screen behavior. She was signed by 20th Century-Fox and debuted in One in a Million (1936), in which she played an ice skater. Sonja is buried on a hilltop overlooking the Henie-Onstad museum. 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. She incorporated 19 different spins into her programs, and she could spin nearly 80 revolutions. Although critics complained about her acting skills and thick 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). Her innovations and unparalleled determination would fuel another ten years of amateur successes, including a still unmatched Olympic record. And most importantly, she hired the best skaters and choreographers and paid them handsomely. At the age of ten she [citation needed], After the war, Henie was mindful that many of her countrymen considered her to be a quisling. Actress: Sun Valley Serenade. Henie, Sonja (1912-1969) | Encyclopedia.com Moreover, Hulten believed that Henie's father influenced competition organizers by playing poker for "appearance fees" and, in one case, the agreement to place Hulten third in the 1936 Olympics. The former NCIS star shared the heartbreaking news Saturday that his younger brother Will Weatherly died on Thursday, April 20. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Elizabeth Ann Family (1) Spouse Niels Onstad ( 6 June 1956 - 12 October 1969) (her death) Winthrop Gardner ( 15 September 1949 - 14 May 1956) (divorced) She did try to make a film series at her own expense; a series that would serve as a travelogue to several cities. 2023 . "Sonja Henie, Skating Star, Dies." She had to concentrate on her profession, and fulfill contracts, really from the age of nine on," he explained. 436. "Henie, Sonja Bill Griffin described Henie as a perfectionist with a short fuse. Both Hans and Selma became deeply involved in Sonja's skating career. Her third and final marriage was to fellow Norwegian Niels Onstad, a shipping magnate, on 9 June 1956. "Henie skates with speed, grace, and eye-boggling abandon through four big numbers," he noted in Entertainment Weekly. Within the Cite this article tool, pick a style to see how all available information looks when formatted according to that style. The result of her first entry into the national championship at Frogner, in 1922, was to win second place. Sonja Henie Death Fact Check, Birthday & Date of Death - Dead or Kicking Get the day's top news with our Today's Headlines newsletter, sent every weekday morning. She had already delighted in dancing, and--with her brother Leif giving her her first lessons--enjoyed Could it be Ms. Hart seems a little "chilly!" Please pardon the periodic visual/audio glitches; the source. Skater Sonja Henie 'Put A Dollar Sign' Behind The Gold skating even more. Henie was not judged to be responsible for the incident, but she decided not to hold any more arena-style shows. 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." "Tonya-no! 27 Apr. 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. She finished in last place. Henie retired from skating in 1956, the same year that she married her third husband, following two earlier marriages that ended in divorce. Sonja Henie. Therefore, that information is unavailable for most Encyclopedia.com content. 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. Henie would make eleven films in Hollywood, with the first six being the most successful. As Honorary Jumper", "Photo Norwegian Air Shuttle Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner EI-LNA", "Cheap flights to Oslo, Copenhagen, Stockholm Norwegian", "Sundance Film Review: 'Sonja: The White Swan', https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sonja_Henie&oldid=1151351901, Inducted into the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame (1982), In 1938, at age 25, she became the youngest person to be made a knight first class of. As a wealthy celebrity, she moved in the same social circles as royalty and heads of state and made Hitler's acquaintance as a matter of course. Two earlier marriages to Americans, Daniel Reid Topping and Winthrop Gardiner Jr., ended in divorces in 1946 and 1956. That The tour did not, however, result in the film contract Henie desired. 12 Oct 1969 (aged 57) Oslo, Oslo kommune, Oslo fylke, Norway. She defended her Olympic titles in 1932 and in 1936, and her world titles annually until 1936. . In 1936 she would In addition to traveling to train and compete, she was much in demand as a performer at figure skating exhibitions in both Europe and North America. Born on April 8, 1912 in Oslo, Norway, her father, Hans Wilhelm Henie, was a successful fur trader and her mother, Selma Lochman Nielsen, had a fortune of her own. Her new goal was the 1927 world figure skating championship.