She later competed successfully in tennis and auto racing in the midst of her skating career. 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. Wirtz also acted as Henie's financial advisor. Hjordis Olsen, an amateur skater at a private club, drilled Henie in mastering the mandatory school figures. Henie famously asserted that she wanted to do for skating what Fred Astaire had done for dancing on film. Sonja Henie | American athlete | Britannica Throughout the 1940s, Henie and Wirtz produced lavish musical ice skating extravaganzas at Rockefeller Center's Center Theatre attracting millions of ticket buyers. She was the champion in the Olympics in 1928, 1932 and 1936. This was particularly true in Norway after World War II, where her status as one of the most admired Norwegians of all time was threatened by criticisms that she had not contributed to war relief efforts. How did Sonja Henie the ice Star die? 27 Apr. In Moreover, her skating numbers were fantastic. Henie's connections with Adolf Hitler and other high-ranking Nazi officials made her the subject of controversy before, during, and after World War II. Sonja Henie, (born April 8, 1912, Kristiania , Norwaydied October 12, 1969, in an airplane en route to Oslo), Norwegian-born American world champion figure skater and Olympic gold medalist who went on to achieve success as a professional ice-skater and as a motion-picture actress. 1948- Zanuck took notice of the petite blonde and signed her to a contract. ." In addition to the income from the fur business, both of Henie's parents had inherited wealth. 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. Henie was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia in the mid-1960s. and easily eclipsed the earnings of any other star athlete, male or female. 2023 . Sonja Henie - Wikipedia Her program also included double axels, spins, twirls, and jumps. OSLO, Oct. 12 (AP)--Sonja Henie, ice-skating queen and film star, died tonight on an ambulance plane flying from Paris to Oslo. Encyclopedia.com. 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. Released on 22 December 1939, it was banned in Nazi Germany. She announced then that she was turning professional, and toured the United States in an ice show. . (Read Scott Hamiltons Britannica entry on figure skating.). In the summer of 1927 Henie had the thrill of seeing her idol, Russian dancer Anna Pavlova, on stage in London, which inspired her to adapt Pavlova's Dying Swan to figure skating. After she complained to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, the guard was summoned to apologize for the incident. Henie's autobiography, written with Janet Owen, is Wings on My Feet (1940). Her mother traveled [13] When white boots quickly became standard for female skaters, Henie began wearing beige boots because she wanted to remain unique. Said to have had a keen business sense, she early acquired the nickname Little Miss Moneybags for her habit of prudent investments. The Norwegian Royal Family attended both events and indeed attended her funeral in 1969. In 1936 Henie won her third and final gold medal at the fourth Winter Olympic Games at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, by earning 2,971.4 points. To get the attention of film executives, Henie's father leased Hollywood's Polar Palace for two performances in May 1936. 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. Figure skating, Sochi Olympics: The evolution of the jump in women's (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 was 57. Three times the Olympic figure-skating champion, Miss Henie won most of the major world skating titles from 1927 to 1936, when she turned professional. Unfortunately she had a serious drinking problem which eventually turn professional and tour with her own ice show. When the Nazis arrived to take over the house, they saw the picture and left quickly. 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. [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". 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". All of her films A year later she won Oslos junior skating championship. Plain Dealer (January 16, 2002). When Henie began her program, her ballet training was evident in the flourishes she made with her head and legs. She died a year later at age fifty-seven. After a twirl on the ice with her pupils, Trudi consents. The tour did not, however, result in the film contract Henie desired. Troubles in Henie's film career were not mirrored in her popularity as a live performer. 27 Apr. In her later years she was noted as a collector and patron of modern art. Indeed, after the school figures section at the 1936 Olympic competition, Colledge and Henie were virtually neck and neck with Colledge trailing by just a few points. They also made her wealthy. Sonja Henie (8 April 1912 - 12 October 1969) was a Norwegian figure skater and film star. Jewelry takes people's minds off your wrinkles. She also forbade the skaters in her chorus from wearing hairpins, after having fallen and broken ribs because of a pin on the ice. was a frequent exclaimatory utterance by Tom and Ray Magliozzi on the National Public Radio show Car Talk. Burial. She Corrections? Later programs included her famous hula sketch. accent audiences loved her. Olympics and came in eighth place. It was her only film shot in Technicolor, but it was not as huge at the box office as her other films and also proved her limitations as a dramatic actress in her only dramatic film. (April 27, 2023). Retrieved April 27, 2023 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/sports/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/henie-sonja. 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. Rap singer Henie married Daniel Reid Topping, an American sports investor from Greenwich, Connecticut, on 4 July 1940; they divorced in 1946. Sonia Henie, as controversial as she was legendary Globetrotting by A dynamic athlete, Henie ranked third among Norway's female tennis players and was "a daring equestrienne." Henie's first love was dancing, and she began to study ballet at age four; the ballet element in her later skating, both as champion amateur and professional, was always evident. 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. 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. A horizontal boulder forms her grave mark, which is located on Henie-Onstad Museum property. 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. The former NCIS star shared the heartbreaking news Saturday that his younger brother Will Weatherly died on Thursday, April 20. Encyclopedia of World Biography. Sonja loved She was the first skater to incorporate the principles of ballet into her routines and the first woman to perform spins and jumps. As Sandra Stevenson recounted in The Independent, "the closeness [of the competition] infuriated Henie, who, when the result for that section was posted on a wall in the competitors' lounge, swiped the piece of paper and tore it into little pieces. Modern figure skating is deeply indebted to Sonja Henie (1912-1969), one of the greatest athletes of this century. (Read Scott Hamiltons Britannica essay on "Training for Olympic Gold."). American figure skater During her competitive career, Henie traveled widely and worked with a variety of foreign coaches. 27 Apr. Although Trudi does no skating in her screen test, she makes the grade. During the years that Henie won her world championships, the five-member judging panel was dominated by three Norwegians. Henie returned to the United States in 1932 for more exhibitions and for the third Winter Olympic Games at Lake Placid, New York. Sports Illustrated (February 14, 1994): 18. These shows, the "Hollywood Ice Revues," were major attractions at Madison Square Garden for many years, up to 1952. She won the children's figure skating championship of Oslo when she was 8, and two years later, in 1923, she won the figure skating championship of Norway. Knisley, Michael. She finished in last place. at Graumann's Chinese Theatre. Her passion for performing turned her into a huge financial and popular success among athletes. Sonja Henie was born on April 8, 1912 in Oslo, Norway. "To her, there were no other skaters," wrote Colledge. Her fur-trimmed costume Two earlier marriages to Americans, Daniel Reid Topping and Winthrop Gardiner Jr., ended in divorces in 1946 and 1956. While her ice show numbers were still worth watching, the film received few distributors and poor reviews, ending her film career. She became a household name for her excellence in figure skating, winning ten world championships, six European.
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