NAME Sonja Henie. The proper pronunciation of her name was "Son-ya Hay-nee," though many Americans mispronounced it.
WHAT FAMOUS FOR Sonja Henie was a Norwegian figure skater and film actress, renowned for her innovative contributions to figure skating, including the introduction of music and dance-based movements in the sport. She is also celebrated for winning three consecutive Olympic gold medals in 1928, 1932, and 1936—a record that remains unmatched by any female singles skater. Additionally, she became one of the highest-paid actresses of her time, starring in a series of popular films during the 1930s and 1940s.
BIRTH Sonja Henie was born on April 8, 1912, in Kristiania (now Oslo), Norway. She was born during a fierce snowstorm that struck Oslo that day, which people later interpreted as a sign that a winter ice princess had arrived.
FAMILY BACKGROUND Sonja was the only daughter and second child of Wilhelm Henie (1872-1937), a prosperous Norwegian furrier who had been the World Cycling Champion of 1894, and his wife Selma Lochmann-Nielsen (1888-1961). Her mother Selma was described as the daughter of a ship captain with her own inheritance, and was noted to be of Irish descent, which according to the family explained Sonja's brown eyes rather than the typical Norwegian blue. Both parents had inherited wealth in addition to the income from the fur business. Sonja had an older brother, Leif Henie (1907-1984), who was five years older and who taught her to skate.
Both parents eventually gave up their own pursuits in Norway—leaving Leif to run the fur business—to accompany Sonja on her travels and act as her managers
CHILDHOOD Sonja was a warm, cheerful, cuddly, and vivacious child with a winsome smile that would eventually capture hearts worldwide. Growing up in an extremely wealthy family, she was raised in a lifestyle of privilege. From the age of three, she danced and skipped almost continually, often wrapping herself in drapes pretending to be a dancer. At age four, she began skiing with her parents and started studying ballet at a ballet school in Oslo.
The Henie children were encouraged by their athletic father to take up various sports at a young age. Sonja initially showed talent at skiing and was also a nationally ranked tennis player and skilled swimmer and equestrian. When she was six years old, she begged for ice skates for Christmas and learned to skate, initially using a pair of hand-me-down clamp-on blades from her brother Leif. She began skating at Frogner Stadium near her childhood home at age five or six.
Within a year of her first tentative strides, she won a children's competition at the age of seven, competing against older and bigger youngsters . By the age of eight, she had settled into a highly disciplined routine that required her to practice at least five hours every day.
EDUCATION Once Henie began serious training as a figure skater, her formal schooling ended when she was about nine years old. She was subsequently educated by private tutors hired by her father. Wilhelm Henie spared no expense, hiring the best experts in the world to transform his daughter into a sporting celebrity. This included instruction from the famous Russian ballerina Tamara Karsavina.
CAREER RECORD 1924 She competed in her first Winter Olympic Games at the age of 11, placing eighth in a field of eight
1927 She won the first of an unprecedented ten consecutive World Figure Skating Championships in 1927 at the age of 14. She retained this title through 1936 (Source 1.4).
1936 After turning professional in 1936, she signed a contract with Twentieth Century Fox and starred in 10 popular films, beginning with One in a Million (1936–37) and Thin Ice (1937)
APPEARANCE Sonja Henie stood 5 feet 3 inches tall (1.55-1.60 meters) and weighed approximately 45 kilograms (99 pounds). She was described as petite and blonde with brown eyes (attributed to her Irish ancestry on her mother's side). She had a dimpled smile that was one of her most recognizable features.
Contemporary descriptions called her a "blonde, chubby-cheeked pocket-edition" with "pixie eyes and blonde Nordic good looks". She was frequently compared to Shirley Temple in appearance, with both being major 20th Century Fox stars. (1)
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| Henie in Berlin 1930 by Bundesarchiv, Bild 102-09482 |
FASHION Sonja Henie revolutionized figure skating fashion and became a style icon. Before her influence, female figure skaters wore long black skirts that reached the ankles for modesty and warmth. Henie's mother created a short skating dress for her because the traditional long black skirt acted like a sail and tangled in her young daughter's legs. The short skirt gave her greater freedom of movement and quickly became a signature part of her skating attire. She also wore white or beige boots and stockings instead of black.
She introduced sequins, feathers, and spectacular costumes to figure skating, often designing them herself. Her costumes became increasingly glamorous during her professional career, including elaborate feathered and fringed numbers. One dress from the 1950s featured a plunging neckline down to her navel. Her costume designer for her Hollywood Ice Revues included Kathryn Kuhn, who created innovative Art Deco designs.
CHARACTER Sonja Henie was a woman of striking contrasts — ambitious, shrewd, and driven, yet often naïve and emotionally distant. She possessed what one observer called “an all-consuming desire” to achieve her goals, channeling her relentless determination into everything she pursued. Her work ethic was legendary, and she displayed extraordinary business insight, transforming her athletic triumphs into a global brand. As one commentator put it, “It’s amazing that she had the business sense to put a dollar sign behind that gold medal — to understand the commodity she could become herself.” (2)
After her death, her brother Leif co-authored the controversial biography Queen of Ice, Queen of Shadows (1985), which painted a more complicated and less flattering portrait. The book alleged struggles with alcoholism, paranoia, selfishness, vulgarity, and a violent temper, suggesting she was “lacking empathy — as if she was unable to truly love anyone apart from herself.” (3)
In her film roles, those who knew her described her as naturally extroverted — a contrast to her reserved mother.
SPEAKING VOICE Sonja Henie spoke English with a thick Norwegian accent throughout her career. While filming, she had difficulty with the accent initially. The studios solved this problem by giving her films European settings or casting her as a refugee or immigrant.
SENSE OF HUMOUR Her sense of humor came across in her film roles, where she often portrayed bubbly, charming characters. Her films Sun Valley Serenade (1941), Iceland (1942), and Wintertime (1943) showcased her growing comedic abilities.
RELATIONSHIPS Sonja Henie was married three times and had several high-profile romantic relationships:
Marriages:
Daniel Reid Topping (1940-1946): Married on July 4, 1940, in Chicago. Topping was a New York sportsman, tin plate heir, and part owner of the New York Yankees. The couple separated in January 1945 and divorced in February 1946, possibly due to her grueling film and touring schedules. It was his third marriage and her first.
Winthrop Gardiner Jr. (1949-1956): Married on September 15, 1949, at Park Avenue Methodist Church in New York City. Gardiner was an aviation executive and this was his fourth marriage. He divorced her in 1956 for "desertion and mental cruelty".
Niels Onstad (1956-1969): Married in June 1956, less than a month after her divorce from Gardiner. Onstad was a wealthy Norwegian shipping magnate (described as "the Onassis of Norway"), art collector, and childhood friend. They remained married until her death in 1969.
Sonja had well-publicized romantic connections with several notable figures:
Tyrone Power: Hollywood heartthrob and co-star, described as her most publicized "romance," though friends contended it was primarily for publicity
Joe Louis: The famous heavyweight boxer
Van Johnson: Actor
Jack Dunn: Her 19-year-old Cambridge undergraduate aviator skating partner and constant companion on her 1936 tour, who died of tularemia
Jeff Dickson: A relationship that ended when she left Europe for the U.S. in 1936
Rumors also circulated about involvement with Liberace
She never had children, reportedly having had at least one abortion.
Henie was estranged from her brother, Leif, for the last twenty years of her life due to an argument over financial considerations
MONEY AND FAME At the height of her fame, Henie was one of the highest-paid women in the world, earning as much as $2 million per year through her ice shows, endorsements, and Hollywood career. She had lucrative contracts to market skating equipment, clothing, jewelry, and even dolls bearing her name. Her financial success made her one of the wealthiest women of her time.
Sonja Henie became one of the wealthiest women in the world through her shrewd business sense. She invested heavily and successfully in California real estate, purchasing about 1,600 acres of prime beach land in Oceanside that became known as "Henie Hills"
At the time of her death in 1969, her personal fortune was estimated at $47 million, making her one of the ten wealthiest women in the world. She and her husband Niels Onstad accumulated a large collection of modern art valued at $3.5 million.
In 1938, she was rated the third-most-popular film star in a box office poll, behind only Shirley Temple and Clark Gable.
FOOD AND DRINK Henie had a healthy and disciplined approach to nutrition, in line with her rigorous athletic training.
Henie had a serious drinking problem that developed during her career and eventually forced her to retire from skating in 1956. By 1956, she had become addicted to alcohol and could no longer meet the demands of touring. This alcoholism was one of the revelations in the 1985 biography Queen of Ice, Queen of Shadows written by her brother Leif.
MOVIE CAREER Sonja Henie’s arrival in Hollywood was the sort of unlikely success story the town adores: an Olympic figure skater who managed to pirouette her way straight into the front ranks of its highest-paid stars. By the late 1930s, she had turned her gold medals into box office gold, headlining a string of ice musicals and frothy comedies that blended sequins, sentiment, and spectacular spins in equal measure.
After retiring from amateur skating in 1936, Henie set her sights on California, that shimmering mirage where every dream comes wrapped in a contract. Her father, who possessed an entrepreneurial instinct worthy of a Rockefeller, arranged a showcase performance in Los Angeles that so dazzled Fox studio chief Darryl Zanuck that he signed her almost on the spot. Her first film, One in a Million (1936), was precisely that—an unexpected smash hit that earned Fox more money than anything else it released that year. Henie was suddenly the toast of Tinseltown, a Norwegian whirlwind gliding through soundstages with a smile as polished as her skates.
Henie spent the next decade whirling through a sequence of hits that looked suspiciously like the same movie dressed in different costumes—and audiences couldn’t get enough of it. There was Thin Ice (1937), Happy Landing (1938)—her biggest success—My Lucky Star (1938), Second Fiddle (1939), Sun Valley Serenade (1941) with Glenn Miller and the Nicholas Brothers, and Iceland (1942), among others. Even when the plots melted away like cheap snow, the skating remained dazzling. She often took charge of the choreography herself, ensuring that every twirl, jump, and beaming smile was perfectly framed by the camera.
By any measure, Sonja Henie was a phenomenon. Eight of her films would go on to earn the modern equivalent of over $100 million at the box office—an astonishing figure for a niche genre about people who sing, dance, and occasionally spin very fast in sequined outfits. She wasn’t just a movie star; she became an institution, turning ice skating into a full-fledged entertainment industry. Thanks to Henie, America discovered that watching people skate in perfect circles could be both glamorous and oddly thrilling.
Henie left her mark—quite literally—at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, where her handprints sit alongside her skate prints, a fitting symbol for a woman who glided effortlessly between worlds. Her films, part athletic spectacle and part Hollywood fantasy, remain a testament to her singular ability to turn frozen water into pure gold.
MUSIC AND ARTS Henie revolutionized the art of figure skating by introducing music and dance elements into free-skating routines. This transformation helped solidify figure skating as a performance sport, bringing it closer to the realm of artistic expression.
Henie enjoyed music and dance from childhood, studying ballet from age five. She was greatly influenced by Russian ballet dancer Anna Pavlova after seeing her perform in London, and her skating incorporated ballet movements learned from famous Russian ballerina Tamara Karsavina.
With her third husband Niels Onstad, she became a passionate art collector. Their relationship began in 1955, and his existing art collection sparked her interest in paintings. They collected young, international modern art, searching for beauty and "things which will bring joy to the eyes and peace to the mind". Their collection included works by Picasso, Matisse, Beuys, Christo, Juan Gris, Jacques Villon, Pierre Bonnard, and famous Norwegian artists.
In 1961, the Sonja Henie and Niels Onstad Foundation was established with their collection of 100 paintings. By 1968, when the Henie Onstad Art Center (Kunstsenter) opened outside Oslo, the collection had grown to 200-250 works. Today, the collection includes over 4,000-8,000 works of art. The museum, which also houses all of Sonja's skating memorabilia and her collection of medals and prizes, was donated by the couple to Norway along with funds for its construction and running costs.
LITERATURE Sonja Henie wrote an autobiography titled Wings on My Feet (published in the United States in 1940, deferred in the UK until after World War II, with a revised edition in 1954). The autobiography has been described as "rather sanitized" and "superficial," with content that is "overly sanitized" and written for a general audience that knew little about the sport. The book served a dual purpose as both autobiography and a manual on figure skating. (4)
Her life story was also told in Queen of Ice, Queen of Shadows: The Unsuspected Life of Sonja Henie (1985), a controversial biography co-written by her brother Leif Henie and Raymond Strait that revealed unflattering aspects of her personality.
NATURE Henie enjoyed nature, particularly the outdoors in her native Norway. As a child, she loved skiing, and the natural beauty of her homeland influenced her athletic pursuits.
ICE SKATING CAREER Sonja Henie didn’t just glide across the ice — she practically reinvented it. Long before sequins and spotlights became part of the figure-skating uniform, a tiny Norwegian girl with ballet shoes and a competitive streak decided the sport could be something beautiful, athletic, and, above all, thrilling to watch.
Sonja was the kind of child who probably made other children’s parents feel inadequate. She began ballet at five, strapped on her first pair of skates at six, and by ten was the national champion of Norway. Her family was full of athletes, so ambition was more or less part of the wallpaper. But it was Sonja’s idea to bring the grace of the ballet barre to the biting cold of the rink. That fusion — of strength and stagecraft — would change figure skating forever.
Then came the records. Three Olympic gold medals in a row — 1928, 1932, and 1936 — a streak no female skater has ever equaled. Ten consecutive world championships, six European titles, five Norwegian ones. The numbers read less like a résumé and more like the box score of a very determined person who didn’t believe in second place. She was just fifteen when she won her first Olympic gold, which made her the youngest champion in the sport’s history.
Henie’s routines were fast, daring, and artfully composed. She twirled like a small cyclone, once spinning nearly eighty times in a row, and introduced short skirts to skating, freeing her legs and, inadvertently, the entire sport. Her style became the blueprint for the modern “free skating” program — a mix of athletic precision and theatrical flair designed as much for the audience as for the judges.
Of course, not everyone adored her. Her 1936 Olympic victory — her third — came amid mutterings about biased judging and her fierce rivalry with Britain’s Cecilia Colledge. The competition was razor-close, and some thought Colledge should have taken gold. But Sonja, as usual, glided off with the medal and an untroubled expression.
After retiring from amateur skating that same year, Henie traded her skates for stage lights, moving into arena shows and then Hollywood, where she became one of the highest-paid stars of the late 1930s and early ’40s. But even beneath the studio glamour, her competitive achievements loomed large.
Today, Sonja Henie stands as one of the sport’s original architects — the woman who transformed figure skating from a stiff, rule-bound pastime into a glittering blend of art and athleticism. Every time a skater launches into a perfectly timed spin or adds a bit of drama to a landing, there’s a little of Sonja’s spirit in the ice.
HOBBIES AND SPORTS Henie's parents encouraged her and her brother, Leif, to take up a variety of sports at a young age. She initially showed talent at skiing. As a girl, she was also a nationally ranked tennis player and a skilled swimmer and equestrian.
Her first love was dancing, and she began studying ballet at age four. However, she preferred figure skating, loving the "whirling" sensation and the resulting "sense of power." (5)
POLITICS Sonja Henie’s glittering career was shadowed by one of the most complicated and controversial legacies in sports history — her political associations with Nazi Germany. While many contemporaries viewed her as politically naïve rather than ideological, her proximity to Adolf Hitler and the German regime deeply tarnished her reputation, especially in her homeland of Norway.
Before World War II, Henie frequently performed in Germany, where she was wildly popular with audiences and — most notably — with Hitler himself. At the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, she was photographed shaking his hand. At the time, this was not unusual — he was the host nation’s leader, greeting athletes was protocol — but the image would later come to haunt her. Some reports claim Henie even gave the Nazi salute and uttered “Heil, Hitler” during a 1936 exhibition in Berlin, though she flatly denied this in her autobiography. Swedish skater Vivi-Anne Hultén later alleged that Henie performed the salute during the Olympics and fueled gossip that she had become romantically involved with Hitler — rumors that historians have since disputed.
When the Nazis invaded Norway in 1940, Henie was abroad. According to some accounts, she telegrammed her maid to display an autographed photo of her with Hitler prominently in her home — a precaution that supposedly prevented German officers from confiscating her property. That same year, her autobiography Wings on My Feet included a photograph of her receiving congratulations from Hitler, which struck an unfortunate note in Norway just as the country fell under German occupation.
After the war, Henie’s once-heroic status in Norway plummeted. Critics accused her of failing to contribute to wartime relief efforts, and some went so far as to label her a “quisling” — a collaborator. In an effort to distance herself from the image of a Nazi sympathizer, Henie starred in the 1939 anti-Nazi film Everything Happens at Night, playing the daughter of a Nobel laureate pursued by the Gestapo. She became a U.S. citizen in 1941 and supported the USO during World War II. Still, her reputation suffered in America, too, when photos of her with Hitler resurfaced during the conflict.
Viewed through a modern lens, Henie’s choices appear deeply troubling, but context matters. In 1936, meeting Hitler at the Olympics was routine for visiting athletes. What was once a moment of ceremony became, in the aftermath of war, a symbol of moral blindness — one that permanently complicated the legacy of one of figure skating’s greatest stars.
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| Henie with Hitler in 1936 |
SCANDAL Beyond the Nazi controversy, several other scandals marked Sonja Henie's life:
Amateur Status Controversy: It was an "open secret" that despite strict amateurism requirements of the time, Wilhelm Henie demanded "expense money" for his daughter's skating appearances. This was considered scandalous given amateur regulations.
Competitive Behavior: During the 1936 Olympics, when she was only three points ahead of 15-year-old Cecilia Colledge going into the final skate, observers reported that "Henie ripped the posted scores off the wall and tore them to shreds". (6)
In 1936, after a guard refused her entry at a Berlin hotel, she complained to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, and the guard was summoned to apologize. Her brother's 1985 biography revealed her violent temper, promiscuity, and difficult personality.
She had well-publicized affairs and reportedly had at least one abortion. Her love life was a source of constant public curiosity and speculation.
After 1985, when Queen of Ice, Queen of Shadows was published, revelations of alcoholism, paranoia, selfishness, and vulgarity became dominant facets of her star image.
MILITARY RECORD During World War II, Heine wore a uniform and supported "Little Norway"
She toured U.S. Army hospitals in Europe as a guest performer in 1945.
HEALTH AND PHYSICAL FITNESS Sonja Henie maintained exceptional physical fitness throughout her career as a world-class athlete, but her health was punctuated by several incidents that reflected both the dangers of her sport and the toll of her lifestyle.
Over the years, she endured a number of serious falls, which might have been fatal for a less experienced skater. This included during the making of Happy Landing, she suffered a brain concussion after tripping over the edge of the rink. Because of the constant risk of injury, her legs were insured by Lloyd’s of London for $5,000 per week, a reflection of their extraordinary value to her livelihood.
Henie also enforced strict safety measures for herself and her troupe. When performing at speeds of up to 35 miles per hour on ice, her skaters were forbidden to wear hairpins, and the electrical superstructure above the rink was meticulously vacuumed to prevent falling debris from marring the ice. Henie was also known to keep several pairs of skates she considered “lucky.”
By 1956, however, her health began to deteriorate due to alcoholism, which eventually forced her to retire from professional skating.
In the mid-1960s, she was diagnosed with leukemia, a condition she kept secret even as her health declined over the next nine months. Remarkably, Henie remained active almost to the end — she was seen at an Oslo theater less than two weeks before her death and continued to oversee the operations of the art museum she and her husband had donated to Norway.
HOMES Sonja Heine was born in an apartment at Bankplassen in Oslo, next door to the famous restaurant Café Engebret. When Sonja was four years old, the family moved to an apartment at Thomas Heftyes gate 52 in the Frogner area of Oslo, only a short walk from Frogner Stadium where she learned to skate. She later maintained a villa in Norway
Her primary Hollywood residence was at 243 Delfern Drive in Holmby Hills. This Colonial Revival-style home was originally designed by architect Leland F. Fuller in 1938 for director Norman Taurog. The property sat on nearly 2 acres and featured 8,460 square feet with 7 bedrooms and 8 bathrooms. Sonja had the home specially designed to her specifications. In 1973, after her death, actress Connie Stevens purchased it from Sonja's estate for $350,000 and later sold it in 2016 for $17 million. The home was featured in the film Postcards From the Edge (1990).
In 1943, Sonja and her brother Leif purchased approximately 1,600 acres of prime beach land in Oceanside, California. Initially a retreat for family and friends, the area generated so much interest that Henie began developing homes and selling them. The neighborhood became known as "Henie Hills". The land where Tri-City Hospital and MiraCosta College now stand was once part of the Henie land holdings.
TRAVEL Sonja Henie traveled extensively throughout her career, performing in ice shows around the world and filming in Hollywood. Her tours were global, taking her to cities such as New York, London, Paris, and Los Angeles.
DEATH Sonja Henie died of leukemia on October 12, 1969, at the age of 57. She died aboard an ambulance plane traveling from Paris to Oslo, just minutes before landing. The plane had been flying for only about an hour when "she just slipped away," according to her husband Niels Onstad, who was with her. (7)
She had been suffering from leukemia for the previous nine months but had kept her illness largely secret. In Paris, her condition suddenly worsened, prompting Onstad to arrange the emergency flight to Oslo on a doctor's advice. Until shortly before her death, she had remained socially active and continued to direct activities at the Henie Onstad Art Center. At the time of her death, she was planning a comeback for a television special that would have aired in January 1970.
Sonja Henie is buried alongside Niels Onstad on a hilltop overlooking the Henie-Onstad Museum outside Oslo.
APPEARANCES IN MEDIA Henie appeared in films and ice shows throughout the 1930s and 1940s. She became an international film star with notable films such as One in a Million (1936), Sun Valley Serenade (1941), and Iceland (1942). Her performances on the ice and in front of the camera made her a global icon.
She presented special ice shows for television in the 1950s.
Heine featured in the Donald Duck cartoon The Autograph Hound and the Looney Tunes cartoon Hollywood Steps Out (as caricatures)
Madame Alexander released a Sonja Henie doll in 1939
A 1994 documentary Sonja Henie: Queen of the Ice was narrated by Cliff Robertson.
A Norwegian biopic Sonja: The White Swan (2019) was directed by Anne Sewitsky with Ine Wilmann playing Henie.
ACHIEVEMENTS 3 Olympic Gold Medals (1928, 1932, 1936)
10 Consecutive World Championships (1927–1936)
Introduced the Mini-Skirt for figure skating in 1924
Transformed figure skating into an artistic performance sport
One of the highest-paid actresses of her time
International fame as both a skater and Hollywood star
Sources: (1) Time magazine (2) KRWG (3) Trust Nordisk (4) Goodreads (5) Encyclopedia.com (6) Little White Lies (7) LA Times
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