Sylvia Sidney
Highest Rated: 100% Merrily We Go to Hell (1932)
Lowest Rated: 44% Used People (1992)
Birthday: Aug 8, 1910
Birthplace: Bronx, New York, USA
During the Great Depression, actress Sylvia Sidney was said to possess the saddest eyes in Hollywood. The native New Yorker had only just debuted on Broadway when the movies lured her westward, where she cornered the market playing little ladies with big problems in "City Streets" (1930) and "An American Tragedy" (1930). (The actress once joked that Paramount paid her by the tear.) In time, she enjoyed more varied roles, among them "Madame Butterfly" (1932), while Fritz Lang made expressionistic use of her in "Fury" (1936) and "You Only Live Once" (1937). Sidney also found sanctuary on the stage, performing with the Group Theatre on Broadway and touring as Jane Eyre and Eliza Doolittle. Sidney was later drawn out of retirement to play Joanne Woodward's elderly mother in "Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams" (1973), for which she received an Oscar nomination. The attention propelled Sydney towards a comeback, in which the diminutive yet wholly indomitable actress was a bracing presence in such films as "Damien: Omen II" (1978), "Beetlejuice" (1988), "Used People" (1992), and "Mars Attacks!" (1998). A lifelong smoker, Sydney succumbed to throat cancer in 1999, her death capping the picaresque career of a leading lady whose star shone bright.
Photos
Sylvia Sidney
Filmography
Movies
Credit | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
56% |
|
Mars Attacks! | Grandma Florence Norris (Character) | $37.8M | 1996 |
44% |
|
Used People | Becky (Character) | $17.1M | 1992 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Andre's Mother | Unknown (Character) | - | 1990 |
No Score Yet |
|
The Witching of Ben Wagner | Grammy (Character) | - | 1990 |
83% |
|
Beetlejuice | Juno (Character) | $73.5M | 1988 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Pals | Fern Stobbs (Character) | - | 1987 |
No Score Yet |
|
An Early Frost | Beatrice McKenna (Character) | - | 1985 |
83% |
|
Cop Killers | Margaret Smith (Character) | - | 1984 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Brass Ring | Grandmother (Character) | - | 1983 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Having It All | Marney (Character) | - | 1982 |
77% |
|
Hammett | Donaldina Cameron (Character) | - | 1982 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Come Along With Me | Mrs. Flanner (Character) | - | 1981 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | A Small Killing | Sadie Ross (Character) | - | 1981 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Shadow Box | Felicity (Character) | - | 1980 |
50% |
|
Damien: Omen II | Aunt Marion (Character) | - | 1978 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Siege | Lillian Gordon (Character) | - | 1978 |
No Score Yet |
|
Raid on Entebbe | Dora Bloch (Character) | - | 1977 |
No Score Yet |
|
Snowbeast | Mrs. Carrie Rill (Character) | - | 1977 |
No Score Yet |
|
Death at Love House | Clara Josephs (Character) | - | 1976 |
80% |
|
God Told Me To | Elizabeth Mullin (Character) | - | 1976 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Winner Take All | Anne Barclay (Character) | - | 1975 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Secret Night Caller | Kitty (Character) | - | 1975 |
No Score Yet |
|
Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams | Mrs. Pritchett (Character) | - | 1973 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Do Not Fold, Spindle or Mutilate | Elizabeth Gibson (Character) | - | 1971 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Behind the High Wall | Hilda Carmichael (Character) | - | 1956 |
80% |
|
Violent Saturday | Elsie Braden (Character) | - | 1955 |
No Score Yet |
|
Les Misérables | Fantine (Character) | - | 1952 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Love From a Stranger | Cecily Harrington (Character) | - | 1947 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Mr. Ace | Margaret Wyndham Chase (Character) | - | 1946 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Searching Wind | Cassie Bowwman (Character) | - | 1946 |
80% |
|
Blood on the Sun | Iris Hilliard (Character) | - | 1945 |
No Score Yet |
|
The Wagons Roll at Night | Flo Lorraine (Character) | - | 1941 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | One Third of a Nation | Mary Rogers (Character) | - | 1939 |
86% |
|
You and Me | Helen Dennis (Character) | - | 1938 |
83% |
|
Dead End | Drina Gordon (Character) | - | 1937 |
100% |
|
You Only Live Once | Joan Graham (Character) | - | 1937 |
No Score Yet |
|
The Trail of the Lonesome Pine | June Tolliver (Character) | - | 1936 |
94% |
|
Fury | Katherine Grant (Character) | - | 1936 |
92% |
|
The Woman Alone | Mrs. Verloc (Character) | - | 1936 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Mary Burns, Fugitive | Mary Burns (Character) | - | 1935 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Behold My Wife | Tonita Storm Cloud (Character) | - | 1935 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Accent on Youth | Linda Brown (Character) | - | 1935 |
No Score Yet |
|
Thirty Day Princess |
Nancy Lane/ |
- | 1934 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Good Dame | Lillie Taylor (Character) | - | 1934 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Jennie Gerhardt | Jennie Gerhardt (Character) | - | 1933 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Pick-Up | Mary Richards (Character) | - | 1933 |
100% |
|
Merrily We Go to Hell | Joan Prentice (Character) | - | 1932 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Madame Butterfly | Cho-Cho San (Character) | - | 1932 |
No Score Yet |
|
An American Tragedy | Roberta "Bert" Alden (Character) | - | 1931 |
90% |
|
Street Scene | Rose Maurrant (Character) | - | 1931 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Ladies of the Big House | Kathleen Storm McNeil (Character) | - | 1931 |
80% |
|
City Streets | Nan Cooley (Character) | - | 1931 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Confessions of a Co-Ed | Patricia Harper (Character) | - | 1931 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Five Minutes From the Station | Carrie Adams (Character) | - | 1930 |
TV
Credit | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Fantasy Island | Unknown (Character) | 1998-1999 |
83% | No Score Yet | thirtysomething | Rose Waldman (Guest Star) | 1989 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Equalizer | Judge (Guest Star) | 1989 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Dear John | Unknown (Guest Star) | 1988 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Trapper John, M.D. | Unknown (Guest Star) | 1984 |
No Score Yet | 95% | Magnum, P.I. | Elizabeth Barrett (Guest Star) | 1983 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | WKRP in Cincinnati | Unknown (Guest Star) | 1978 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Eight Is Enough | Unknown (Guest Star) | 1977 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Starsky and Hutch | Unknown (Guest Star) | 1976 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | My Three Sons | Unknown (Guest Star) | 1969 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Route 66 | Unknown (Guest Star) | 1961 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Climax! | Unknown (Character) | 1955 1957 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Showcase 39 | Unknown (Character) | 1953 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Tales of Tomorrow | Unknown (Character) | 1952 |