. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. The signature of her ice skate blades adorns the cement at Grauman's Chinese Theatre. 20th Century-Fox and debuted in, - IMDb Mini Biography By: Tony Fontana . She was 57. The one obstacle that remained in Henie's way proved to be of small concern: the fact that she wasn't much of an actress. Following the success of Thin Ice, Henie showed her growing business savvy by getting Twentieth Century-Fox to renegotiate her contract. first pair of ice skates when she was six. Though Metro-Goldwin-Mayer (MGM) had expressed interest in her after the 1936 Olympics, when she arrived in the United States Henie and her father planned a gala skating exhibition She finished in last place. The Three Faces of Sonja Henie: Competitor, Performer, Movie Star After her retirement in 1956, Henie and Onstad settled in Oslo and accumulated a large collection of modern art that formed the basis for the Henie Onstad Art Centre at Hvikodden in Brum near Oslo. The result of her first entry into the national championship at Frogner, in 1922, was to win second place. During her competitive career, Henie traveled widely and worked with a variety of foreign coaches. 1948- and easily eclipsed the earnings of any other star athlete, male or female. The family also fully appreciated Henie's interest in sports. Her death in Los Angeles, California on October 12, 1969, robbed the skating world of one of its brightest stars. Henie went on to win first of her three Olympic gold medals the following year, becoming one of the youngest figure skating Olympic champions. Henie incorporated ballet movements into her skating; she had taken ballet lessons from the age of five and was influenced by ballerina Anna Pavlova. I don't think she ever really learned to enjoy life. (Read Scott Hamiltons Britannica essay on "Training for Olympic Gold."). Her illness had been a well-kept secret. Henie kept her Hollywood home in Holmby Hills and enjoyed her Grundholtet villa in Norway and apartment in Lausanne, Switzerland. [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. Omissions? On a hilltop overlooking the Henie-Onstad Museum. Miss Henie had been suffering from. 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. Modern figure skating is deeply indebted to Sonja Henie (1912-1969), one of the greatest athletes of this century. His daughter began studying ballet at age five and would be active in skiing, swimming, and horseback riding. Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives, Thematic Series: Sports Figures, Hamill, Dorothy Henie returned to the United States in 1932 for more exhibitions and for the third Winter Olympic Games at Lake Placid, New York. She therefore made the best of it and won her third Olympic medal. A 2002 article in the (Cleveland) Plain Dealer reflected Henie's impact in these shows, an accomplishment undimmed by the passing of sixty-four years. . The intensity of Henie's commitment to skating was further intensified after competing in the first winter Olympics, in Chamonix, France, in 1924. The next year, she began training for the national championship of Norway. In addition to her film career at Fox from 1936 to 1943, Henie formed a business arrangement with Arthur Wirtz, who produced her touring ice shows under the name of "Hollywood Ice Revue". Sonja Henie - IMDb Time (July 17, 1939): 51-54. playing tennis and she excelled at ice-skating. Her free-skating program, with its musical medley of stage songs, received a standing ovation. For the rest of the war, all of her possessions were left untouched by the Nazis. 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. A little "meowing" before Ms. Henie takes the ice. 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. Henie married Daniel Reid Topping, an American sports investor from Greenwich, Connecticut, on 4 July 1940; they divorced in 1946. In 1940 Sonja married businessman Daniel The early start was seen as a disadvantage, with the audience not yet whipped into a clapping frenzy and the judges known to become freer with their higher marks as the event proceeded. Within a year of turning pro, Henie had earned in excess of a quarter of a million dollars. At the time of the 1994 Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan rivalry, their altercations were compared in the press with the sparring that went on between Henie and Swedish skater Vivi-Anne Hulten many years earlier. 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. After her marriage to Mr. Onstad, a childhood sweetheart, in 1956, she became interested in modern art. For emphasis on Henie's film career, see entries in David Shipman, The Great Movie Stars: The Golden Years (1970; rev. Henie was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia in the mid-1960s. The daughter of a fur wholesaler in Norway, Sonja Henie received her first pair of ice skates when she was six. 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. Encyclopedia.com. afforded her greater ease of movement, and she performed some moves that were downright shocking for the time, including a jump into a sit spin. She married Onstad that same yearby which time her film career was largely behind herand embarked on an avocation of art collecting which resulted in one of the finest collections of paintings in Hollywood. [6] Happy Landing (1938) was her biggest box office hit. [29], Not to be confused with American basketball player, After the war, Henie was mindful that many of her countrymen considered her to be a, 1936 European Figure Skating Championships, "Cecilia Colledge: Champion figure skater", "AFI's 100 Years 100 Stars America's Greatest Legends", "Nektet pne festspill hvis Flagstad skulle synge", "International Women's Sports Hall of Fame", "Sonja Henie Joins 508th Regt. She was 57 years old. Corrections? Coached by Swedish Olympic medalist Gillis Grafstrm, she transformed a predictable series of colourless exercises into a spectacular and popular exhibition. "Gee-Whizzer." 27 Apr. What Shows Have Been Renewed or Canceled? Other stories echo these allegations, although in a milder fashion. Henie broke off her arrangement with Wirtz in 1950 and for the next three seasons produced her own tours under the name "Sonja Henie Ice Revue". While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Sun Valley Serenade - Wikipedia She took a largely unnoticed, technically-oriented sport and turned it into a dynamic art form that, along with its star performers, is avidly followed by fans around the world.