Gale Sondergaard

Gale Sondergaard holds a place in film history that can never be taken from her: she was the very first winner of the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, and she won it for her screen debut. That detail fascinates me. To arrive from the stage and immediately define a new category at the highest level speaks to a theatrical discipline that modern stardom rarely cultivates. I find figures from this 1930s golden age genuinely moving, because their reputations rest entirely on the work itself rather than on a media machine. Sondergaard earned her permanence the old-fashioned way, through sheer craft.

Name (English)

Gale Sondergaard

Name (Japanese)

ゲイル・ソンダガード

Reading

げいる・そんだがーど

Born

February 15, 1899 – August 14, 1985

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Aquarius / Boar

Origin

Litchfield, Minnesota, United States

Occupation

actor / stage actor / television actor / film actor

Awards & achievements

• 1937 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress

Motto

Private

• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B2%E3%82%A4%E3%83%AB%E3%83%BB%E3%82%BD%E3%83%B3%E3%83%80%E3%82%AC%E3%83%BC%E3%83%89

Tags

• Minnesota
• actor
• stage actor
• television actor

Last updated

2026-06-02

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.