Sonja Henie

Sonja Henie (April 8, 1912 - October 12, 1969) was a Norwegian figure skater and actress. She is a three-time Olympic Champion (1928, 1932, 1936), a ten-time World Champion (1927-1936) and a six-time European Champion (1931-1936). Henie won more Olympic and World titles than any other ladies figure skater. At the height of her acting-career she was one of the highest paid movie-stars in Hollywood.

Summary

Sonja Henie was born in Kristiania, current Oslo, the daughter of Wilhelm Henie, a one-time World Cycling Champion and a prosperous Norwegian fur trader. Her father hired the best experts in the world, including the famous Russian ballerina Tamara Karsavina, to transform his daughter into a sporting celebrity. She took the gold medal in the 1928, 1932 and 1936 Winter Olympics. She first placed eighth in a field of eight at the 1924 Winter Olympics, at the age of eleven. During the 1924 program, she skated over to the side of the rink several times to ask her coach for directions.

But by the next Olympiad, she needed no such assistance. Henie won the first of an unprecedented ten World Figure Skating Championships in 1927 at the age of fifteen, and her first Olympic gold medal the following year. She also won six consecutive European championships. She is credited with being the first figure skater to adopt the short skirt costume in figure skating, and make use of dance choreography. Her innovative skating techniques and glamourous demeanor transformed the sport permanently and confirmed its acceptance as a legitimate sport in the Winter Olympics. Henie became so popular with the public that police had to be called out for crowd control on her appearances in various disparate cities such as Prague and New York. She was also an accomplished tennis player.

After the 1936 Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, she gave up her amateur status and took up a career as a professional performer in acting and live shows. She mostly performed in the United States, but had triumphant shows in Norway in 1953 and 1955. In 1938 she published her autobiography, which was republished in a revised edition in 1954. In 1941, she became a naturalized citizen of the United States. She retired from acting in 1958 with the film Hello, London. She became one of the wealthiest women in the world in her time.

Henie was married three times, with Dan Topping, Winthrop Gardner, and finally the wealthy Norwegian shipowner and art patron Niels Onstad in 1956. Together, Henie and Onstad settled in Oslo and accumulated a large collection of modern art that formed the basis for the Henie-Onstad Art Centre at Høvikodden, near Oslo.

She was diagnosed with leukemia in the mid-1960s. She died in 1969 during a flight from Paris to Oslo. Considered by many as one of the greatest figure skaters in history, she and her husband are buried on the hilltop overlooking the Henie-Onstad Art Centre.

She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Competitive highlights

Awards

• Inducted into the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame (1976).
• Inducted into the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame (1982).
• Was the youngest figure skater

Filmography

• Seven Days for Elizabeth (1927)
• Se Norge (1929) (documentary)
• One in a Million (1936 film) (1936)
• Thin Ice (1937)
• Ali Baba Goes to Town (1937) (Cameo)
• Happy Landing (1938)
• My Lucky Star (1938)
• Second Fiddle (1939)
• Everything Happens at Night (1939)
• Sun Valley Serenade (1941)
• Iceland (1942)
• Wintertime (1943)
• It's a Pleasure (1945)
• The Countess of Monte Cristo (1948)
• Hello London (1958)

Trivia

In 1938, at age 25, she became the youngest person made a knight first class of The Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav.

In 1936, her career was damaged after taking a picture shaking hands with Adolf Hitler and agreeing to have breakfast with the Nazi leader at his residence at Berchtesgaden, something the Norwegian people never forgave her for.

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