Sidney was born Sophia Kosow in the Bronx, New York, the daughter of Rebecca (née Saperstein), a Romanian Jew, and Victor Kosow, a Russian-Jewish immigrant who worked as a clothing salesman.[2] Her parents divorced by 1915, and she was adopted by her stepfather Sigmund Sidney, a dentist. Her mother became a dressmaker and renamed herself Beatrice Sidney.[3] Now using the surname Sidney, Sylvia became an actress at the age of 15 as a way of overcoming shyness. As a student of the Theater Guild's School for Acting, she was praised by theater critics for her performances. In 1926, she made her first film appearance as an extra in D.W. Griffith's The Sorrows of Satan.[4]
Sidney's career diminished somewhat during the 1940s. In 1949, exhibitors voted her "box-office poison".[8] In 1952, she played the role of Fantine in Les Misérables, and although the film itself did not meet the studio's expectations, Sidney received critical praise for her performance.[9]
Sidney appeared three times on Playhouse 90. On May 16, 1957, she appeared as Lulu Morgan, mother of singer Helen Morgan in "The Helen Morgan Story". Four months later, Sidney rejoined her former co-star Bergen on the premiere of the short-lived The Polly Bergen Show.[10] She also worked in television during the 1960s on such programs as Route 66, The Defenders, and My Three Sons.
In 1973, Sidney received an Academy Award nomination for her supporting role in Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams. As an elderly woman, Sidney continued to play supporting screen roles, and was identifiable by her husky voice, the result of cigarette smoking. She was the formidable Miss Coral in the film version of I Never Promised You a Rose Garden and later was cast as Aidan Quinn's grandmother in the television production of An Early Frost where she spoke the memorable line "AIDS is a disease, not a disgrace!" and for which she won a Golden Globe Award. She played Aunt Marion in Damien: Omen II and had key roles in Beetlejuice (directed by longtime Sidney fan Tim Burton), for which she won a Saturn Award, and Used People. Her final role was in Mars Attacks!, another film by Burton, in which she played an elderly woman whose beloved records by Slim Whitman help stop an alien invasion from Mars.
On television, she appeared in the pilot episode of WKRP in Cincinnati as the imperious owner of the radio station, and she appeared in a memorable episode of Thirtysomething as Melissa's tough grandmother, who wanted to leave her granddaughter the family dress business, though Melissa wanted a career as a photographer. Sidney also appeared at the beginning of each episode as the crotchety travel clerk on the short-lived late-1990s revival of Fantasy Island. She also was featured on Starsky & Hutch; The Love Boat; Magnum, P.I.; Diagnosis Murder; and Trapper John, M.D.
Her Broadway career spanned five decades, from her debut performance as a graduate of the Theatre Guild School in June 1926 at age 15, in the three-act fantasy Prunella to the Tennessee Williams play Vieux Carré in 1977.[11] Other stage credits included The Fourposter, Enter Laughing, and Barefoot in the Park. In 1982, Sidney was awarded the George Eastman Award by George Eastman House for distinguished contribution to the art of film.
Personal life
Sidney was married three times, first to publisher Bennett Cerf on October 1, 1935; they divorced on April 9, 1936. She married actor and acting teacher Luther Adler in 1938, by whom she had her only child, a son Jacob ("Jody"; 1939–1987), who died of ALS 12 years before his mother. Adler and Sidney divorced in 1946.[1] On March 5, 1947, she married radio producer Carlton Alsop;[12] roughly four years later, attorney Melvin Belli assisted Sidney in her divorce suit,[13] brought on grounds of extreme cruelty. Waiving any alimony request and seeking only restoration of her maiden name,[14] Sidney was granted the decree and the divorce was finalized on July 24, 1951.[15]
^"Prunella Charming in Guild Youths' Hands". The New York Times. June 16, 1926. p. 23.
^Acme Telephoto (March 10, 1947). "Sylvia's Secret's Out". Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. p. 6. ProQuest1928196904. Retrieved September 26, 2024 – via ProQuest. Screen actress Sylvia Sidney and Carleton Alsop, radio producer, disclosed their secret Mar. 5 marriage in Los Angeles. Mr. and Mrs. Quentin Reynolds were the only witnesses.
^Kilgallen, Dorothy (March 22, 1951). "On Broadway". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. p. 23. ProQuest1854531795. Retrieved September 27, 2024 – via ProQuest. Sylvia Sidney has engaged Prince Troubetzkoy's lawyer, Mel Belli, to help in her divorce suit against Carlton Alsop.
^"Sylvia Sidney Sues to Divorce Third Husband". The Los Angeles Times. March 23, 1951. p. 14. ProQuest166212557. Retrieved September 27, 2024 – via ProQuest. The complaint, filed in Superior Court, said that on many occasions, Alsop, 51, berated his 41-year-old wife in the presence of other persons without cause or justification. Miss Sidney charged that her husband's conduct caused her great mental and physical suffering and impaired her health. [...] No specific request for alimony was made in the document and Miss Sidney informed the court that there is no community property. She asked for the legal right to resume her maiden name. The petition said she and Alsop parted last Oct. 5. They were married here March 5, 1947.
^"Divorces". The Billboard. August 4, 1951. p. 41. Retrieved September 27, 2024.
^Motion Picture and Television Magazine, November 1952, page 33, Ideal Publishers
^Frankel, Haskel (March 18, 1979). "Theater". The New York Times. ISSN0362-4331. Archived from the original on February 7, 2019. Retrieved February 5, 2019.
^"Johnny Presents". Harrisburg Telegraph. September 19, 1941. p. 17. Archived from the original on August 3, 2017. Retrieved July 21, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
