Sylvia Sidney
Sylvia Sidney (August 8, 1910 - July 1, 1999) was an American actress.
Born Sophia Kosow in The Bronx, New York, New York, Sidney became an actress at the age of 15 as a way of overcoming shyness. A student of the Theater Guild's School for Acting, Sidney appeared in several of their productions during the 1920s and earned praise from theater critics. In 1927 she was seen by a Hollywood talent scout and made her first film appearance later that year.
During the Great Depression Sidney appeared in a string of films, playing either the girlfriend or the sister of a gangster. Among her films of this period were An American Tragedy and Street Scene (both 1931), Sabotage (1936) and Dead End (1937). Her career diminished somewhat during the early 1940s and a comeback later in the decade failed to renew her popularity.
In 1952 she played the role of Fantine in Les Misérables, and her performance was widely praised and allowed her opportunities to develop as a character actress. She received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress nomination for her role in Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams (1973).
As an elderly woman she continued to play supporting roles, and was identifiable by her husky voice, the result of a lifetime cigarette smoking habit. She played the grandmother in the television production of An Early Frost for which she won a Golden Globe Award, and she also played key roles in Beetlejuice (directed by longtime Sidney fan Tim Burton) and Used People. Her theatrical swan song was in another film by Burton, Mars Attacks, in which she played a senile woman who stumbles upon a way to stop an alien invasion. On TV, she appeared as the grandmother of Melanie Mayron in the comedy-drama Thirtysomething and made her final acting appearance as a regular on the short-lived late-1990s revival of Fantasy Island.
She was married three times, including a marriage to acting teacher Luther Adler from 1938 until 1947.
She died from throat cancer in New York.
Sylvia Sidney has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contribution to Motion Pictures at 6245 Hollywood Boulevard.