Sylvia Sydney

Sylvia Sidney was born in the Bronx, NY, on August 8, 1910. As an early teen, Sylvia decided she wanted a stage career and fortunately had the full support of her parents who enrolled her in the Theater Guild's School for Acting. Her early career was all centered on the stage, but her rave reviews attracted Hollywood and after a year or two of transition, she was a full fledged film star. She gravitated toward roles of women involved with unsavory situations and unsavory men. The titles of many of her thirties films tell the tale - City Streets, Street Scene, Ladies of the Big House, Merrily We Go To Hell, Pick-up, Good Dame, Fritz Lang's Fury and the classic Dead End. To quote Sylvia, "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." Other roles showed her overall versatility, for instance she had the starring role in Madame Butterfly. Sylvia continued to make films through the forties and then made the transition to television. Her last film role was in 1996's Mars Attacks as Grandma Florence Norris. Sylvia died in 1999.

Sylvia Sydney - What do you think? Allure?