[1][3] Her career flourished during the 1930s, notably as the steadfastly loyal wife of disgraced innocent Alfred Dreyfus in The Life of Emile Zola starring Paul Muni (1937).

[4] During pre-production of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's classic The Wizard of Oz (1939), an early idea was to have the Wicked Witch of the West portrayed as a slinky, glamorous villainess in a black, sequined costume, inspired by the Evil Queen in Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).

After the decision was made to have an ugly witch, Sondergaard, reluctant to wear the disfiguring makeup and fearing it could damage her career, withdrew from the role, and it went to veteran character actress Margaret Hamilton.

[5] Sondergaard was cast as the sultry and slinky Tylette, a magically humanized but devious cat, in The Blue Bird (1940),[6] and played the exotic, sinister Eurasian wife in The Letter (1940) starring Bette Davis.

[8] Sondergaard's career suffered irreparable damage during the United States Congressional HUAC Red Scare of the early 1950s when her husband was accused of being a communist and named as one of the Hollywood Ten.

Her younger sister Hester Sondergaard was also an actress who featured in Seeds of Freedom (1943), The Naked City (1948), Jigsaw (1949) and The Big Break (1953).

[1] Following several strokes, Sondergaard died from cerebral vascular thrombosis in the Motion Picture and Television Hospital in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California in 1985, aged 86.