Sylvia Sidney was born in New York City, in the Bronx borough, on August 8, 1910 with the birth name of Sophia Kosow. Her father was Russian born and her mother was born in Romania. They divorced not long after her birth. Her mother subsequently remarried and Sylvia was adopted by her stepfather, Sigmund Sidney. Sylvia was a shy child and her ...
Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture – Drama, Laurence Olivier Award for Actress of the Year in a New Play
[on her unhappy experience working with William Wyler] (He) made me feel so inadequate. More than anybody else, I think, he was responsible for sending me back to the stage to try to regain my security as an actress.
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[on realizing she could refuse unsuitable roles] When I realized I didn't have to, I became a bitch on wheels.
3
Fredric March had the reputation of being a ladies man. We made two pictures together, Merrily We Go to Hell (1932) and Good Dame (1934). But he never laid a hand on me, never made a pass at me! Freddie was happily married. He'd tease me by saying, "Look at those boobs!" or "Look at that toosh!". But it was all in fun.
4
Hollywood! It's like an old chair - if it's useful, keep it; if not, give it to Goodwill.
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What's the use of talking about a favorite role if you can't get it... The role you're doing ought to be your favorite. If you don't like a part it's probably because you've a feeling of inadequacy about it.
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Women who try to hide their age just call attention to it. Why lie about it? I don't feel any younger... I don't look any younger. Somebody finds out about your real age eventually. It's easier to be frank about it... I've enjoyed every age in my life. I've never wanted to go back.
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Prima donnas in anything are bad... Having a child was a great leveling agent. Those babies couldn't care less that their parents were famous.
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Paramount paid me by the tear.
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What did Hitchcock teach me? To be a puppet and not try to be creative.
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I'd be the girl of the gangster... then the sister who was bringing up the gangster... then the mother of the gangster... and they always had me ironing somebody's shirt.
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Every young actress thinks she's a tragedian -- the more tragic roles, the more you cry, the more you suffer, the better an actress you are. But, when I got a little older, a little more mature, I wanted to get out of my image of "the victimized kid." I began to say, "Wait a minute. There's a thing called comedy that takes an even rougher intelligence and more technique and knowledge of the craft.
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Fact
1
She was sought for the lead role in "Angel In Furs" a film set on the Alaskan glacier. Sylvia's character, the lead, would have been a nurse. The film appears never to have been made.
2
She was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6245 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on February 8, 1960.
3
Seeing herself as a screaming witness in her first film Thru Different Eyes (1929) made her scream in the audience and cancel her Fox contract.
4
She was a lifelong member of the Republican party.
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She was nominated for a 1973 Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Guest Artist for her performance in the play, "Suddenly Last Summer", at the Ivanhoe Theatre in Chicago, Illinois.
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Ex-wife of Luther Adler. She was at one time the sister-in-law of famed acting coach Stella Adler.
7
Miss Sidney was easily identified wherever she drove by her personalized Connecticut license plate which read "SYLIE".
8
An antique farmhouse in Roxbury, Connecticut was Miss Sidney's home for decades, before moving to suburban Danbury, Connecticut the last several years of her life.
Sylvia's first marriage was to Random House publishing president Bennett Cerf, who later served as the avuncular panelist on the popular nighttime game show What's My Line? (1950) of the 1950s and 1960s. Married on October 1, 1935, they separated three months later and divorced after just eight. Cerf later quipped, "One should never legalize a hot romance.".
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Son Jacob, known as Jody, with actor Luther Adler was born October 22, 1939 and died 1987. Although Sylvia and Luther divorced in 1946, they remained friends and frequently turned to each other for professional advice, even appearing together in later stage productions.
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She played the tragic, non-singing Cio-Cio San in the film Madame Butterfly (1932) which led to a brand of Japanese condoms being named the "Sylvia Sidneys".
13
One of her hobbies was needlepoint.
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Honored with a lifetime achivement award by the Film Society of Lincoln Center. [1990]
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She became the first star actress to be photographed in "outdoor Technicolor" when she starred in The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936).
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Wrote two books on needlepoint, which were published in the 1970s.
$600,000
