Sidney Fox was an American actress.

Career

Fox was born Sidney Leiffer in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 in 1907 to a Jewish

Jews

The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...

 family. Her parents were wealthy until they went bankrupt and Sidney had to get a job as a teenager. She became a dressmaker, and spent her spare time studying law. At 15 she joined a law firm, but spent her spare time writing fashion articles, which led to a job as a "mannequin" (or model) on Fifth Avenue shop. She began studying acting and pestering the movie moguls for a film role, unsuccessfully. They told her that she was too young and should get some training in "stock" and then come back. She joined a touring theatrical company and within a year was playing on Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

. She was given a lead role in Lost Sheep at the age of 18.

Fox made her film debut in the 1931 Hobart Henley

Hobart Henley

Hobart Henley was an American silent film actor, director, and screenwriter....

 drama, The Bad Sister

The Bad Sister

The Bad Sister is a 1931 American drama film directed by Hobart Henley. The screenplay by Edwin H. Knopf, Tom Reed, and Raymond L. Schrock is based on the 1913 novel The Flirt by Booth Tarkington, which previously was filmed in 1916 and 1922...

opposite Conrad Nagel

Conrad Nagel

Conrad Nagel was an American screen actor and matinee idol of the silent film era and beyond. He was also a well-known television actor and radio performer.-Biography:...

, Humphrey Bogart

Humphrey Bogart

Humphrey DeForest Bogart was an American actor. He is widely regarded as a cultural icon.The American Film Institute ranked Bogart as the greatest male star in the history of American cinema....

, Zasu Pitts

ZaSu Pitts

ZaSu Pitts was an American actress who starred in many silent dramas and comedies, transitioning to comedy sound films.-Early life:ZaSu Pitts was born in Parsons, Kansas to Rulandus and Nellie Pitts; she was the third of four children...

, and, also making her film debut, Bette Davis

Bette Davis

Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...

, who was a half-year younger than Fox. Fox also starred as "Madamoiselle Camille L'Espanaye" in the 1932 Robert Florey

Robert Florey

Robert Florey was a French screenwriter, director of short films, and actor who moved to Hollywood in 1921. In 1950, Florey was made a knight in the French Légion d'honneur....

 film, Murders in the Rue Morgue

Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932 film)

Murders in the Rue Morgue is a 1932 horror film, loosely based on Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue". Bela Lugosi portrays a lunatic scientist who abducts women and injects them with blood from his ill-tempered caged ape...

opposite Bela Lugosi

Béla Lugosi

Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó , commonly known as Bela Lugosi, was a Hungarian actor of stage and screen. He was best known for having played Count Dracula in the Broadway play and subsequent film version, as well as having starred in several of Ed Wood's low budget films in the last years of his...

. In 1933 she played the role of the niece opposite renowned operatic bass Feodor Chaliapin

Feodor Chaliapin

Feodor Ivanovich Chaliapin was a Russian opera singer. The possessor of a large and expressive bass voice, he enjoyed an important international career at major opera houses and is often credited with establishing the tradition of naturalistic acting in his chosen art form.During the first phase...

 in the English-language version of Adventures of Don Quixote

Adventures of Don Quixote (film)

Adventures of Don Quixote is the English title of a film adaptation of the classic Miguel de Cervantes novel, directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst, starring the famous operatic bass Feodor Chaliapin. Although the film stars Chaliapin, it is not an opera; however, he does sing three songs in it. It is...

. Her last film appearance was in the 1934 musical comedy Down to Their Last Yacht

Down to Their Last Yacht

Down to Their Last Yacht is a 1934 comedy adventure produced and distributed by RKO Pictures.-Cast:*Mary Boland - Queen Malakamokalu*Polly Moran - Nella Fitzgerald*Ned Sparks - Captain 'Sunny Jim' Roberts*Sidney Fox - Linda Colt-Stratton...

opposite Mary Boland

Mary Boland

-Career:Born Marie Anne Boland in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she was the daughter of William Boland, an actor, and his wife Mary Cecilia Hatton. She had an older sister named Sara....

, Polly Moran

Polly Moran

Polly Moran was an American actress and comedian.Born in Chicago, Illinois, Moran started out in vaudeville, and widely toured North America, as well as various other locations that included Europe and South Africa...

 and Ned Sparks

Ned Sparks

Ned Sparks was a Canadian character actor. Sparks was well known for his deadpan expression and deep, gravelly voice.-Early life and career:...

.

Death

Fox died of an overdose of sleeping pills on November 14, 1942 in Hollywood at the age of 34. Her death was officially ruled an accident. She was buried in the Mount Lebanon Cemetery, Glendale

Glendale

Glendale is the anglicised version of its gaelic name, Gleann Dail, which means valley of fertile, low-lying arable land. The name originates from Scotland.It may refer to:-Places:Australia*Glendale, New South Wales**Stockland, a shopping centre...

, Queens

Queens

Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

. cemetery.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role
1931	Bad Sister	Marianne Madison
	Six Cylinder Love	Marilyn Sterling
	Strictly Dishonorable Strictly Dishonorable (1931 film) Strictly Dishonorable is a 1931 romantic comedy film directed by John M. Stahl, starring Paul Lukas, Sidney Fox and Lewis Stone, and featuring George Meeker and Sidney Toler. It was written by Gladys Lehman and based on Preston Sturges' 1929 hit Broadway play of the same name...	Isabelle Perry
1932	Murders in the Rue Morgue Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932 film) Murders in the Rue Morgue is a 1932 horror film, loosely based on Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue". Bela Lugosi portrays a lunatic scientist who abducts women and injects them with blood from his ill-tempered caged ape...	Mlle. Camille L'Espanaye
	Nice Women	Beth Girard
	The Cohens and the Kellys in Hollywood	Herself
	The Mouthpiece The Mouthpiece The Mouthpiece is a 1932 crime drama film directed by James Flood and Elliott Nugent.-Selected cast:*Warren William as Vincent 'Vince' Day*Sidney Fox as Celia Farraday*Aline MacMahon as Miss Hickey, Day's secretary*John Wray as Mr. Barton...	Celia Farraday
	Once in a Lifetime	Susan Walker
	Afraid to Talk	Peggy Martin
	Roi Pausole	Diana
1934	Midnight Midnight (1934 film) Midnight is a 1934 film noir directed by Chester Erskine and starring Sidney Fox, O.P. Heggie, Henry Hull, Margaret Wycherly, and Humphrey Bogart. The film was re-released as Call It Murder after Bogart became a movie star. His credit was enlarged to a guest star status although Bogart was...	Stella Weldon
	Down to Their Last Yacht Down to Their Last Yacht Down to Their Last Yacht is a 1934 comedy adventure produced and distributed by RKO Pictures.-Cast:*Mary Boland - Queen Malakamokalu*Polly Moran - Nella Fitzgerald*Ned Sparks - Captain 'Sunny Jim' Roberts*Sidney Fox - Linda Colt-Stratton...	Linda Colt-Stratton
	Adventures of Don Quixote Adventures of Don Quixote (film) Adventures of Don Quixote is the English title of a film adaptation of the classic Miguel de Cervantes novel, directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst, starring the famous operatic bass Feodor Chaliapin. Although the film stars Chaliapin, it is not an opera; however, he does sing three songs in it. It is...	Maria, the niece
1935	School for Girls	Annette Edlridge

External links