...... Andre Schjaerve 6/9/2008 Hi,I'd like you to become my Amazon Friend. I was anable to reach you through a blog account. I am a Norwegian American screenwriter and am fascinated with Sonja Wigert. I can't say exactly why here, but my grandfather gave Sonja her film debut "songen om rondane" through his company AS Vikingfilm. I read your blog on Sonja and would like to talk with you. Ha det bra, Andre - Sonja Wigert and Hasse Ekman in OMBYTE AV TÅG 1943(Change of Trains)
Alfred Maurstad and Sonja Wigert in FANT 1937
Sonja Wigert in her last Norwegian film, the excellent comedy Lån meg din kone 1958(Let Me Borrow Your Wife) - one of her best comic efforts.
Sonja Wigert in her last Norwegian film, the excellent comedy Lån meg din kone 1958(Let Me Borrow Your Wife) - one of her best comic efforts.
Sonja Wigert og Anders Henrikson i Hennes lilla majestaet(Her little Majesty)1939
Sonja Wigert 1935.
Sonja Wigert 1935.
Vivien Leigh 1913-1967 and Sonja Wigert 1913-1980. They were so much alike and both suffered tremendously in their lives.... They both were courageous and both have a legacy as stars and women that will never be forgotten....
Who I C? Per Aabel 1923... before he became Norway`s most prominert actor in the 20th century, he was a ballet dancer. He starred with Sonja in the film Kjærlighet og vennskap(Love and Friendship)
In ELI SJURSDOTTER 1938
Who I C? Per Aabel 1923... before he became Norway`s most prominert actor in the 20th century, he was a ballet dancer. He starred with Sonja in the film Kjærlighet og vennskap(Love and Friendship)
In ELI SJURSDOTTER 1938
SONJA WIGERT won a (who DIDN`t in the 30`s??? hehe) talentcontest on the subject of "Who is Norway`s Greta Garbo" and landed a role in the film Sangen on Rondane(The Song of Rondane). It led to a contract with The National Theatre and in 1937 she starred in the movie version of Oscar Braaten`s Bra mennesker(Nice people) and Tancred Ibsen`s Fant(The Tramp) with Alfred Maurstad. Ibsen was both grandchild of Henrik Ibsen AND Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson and was called "The Double Grandchild" hehe.
In Fant she played Josefa and her stunning acting abileties and presence made her the only one that came close to a being moviestar in Norway. The following year she starred in Leif Sinding`s version of Gabriel Scott`s Eli Sjursdotter(Eli Sjursdaughter) and Sweden beckoned....
From 1939 to 1955 she starred in over 20 Swedish films and she came back only for a few filmappearances; like Kjærlighet og vennskap(Love and Friendship)1941 with Per Aabel and the mysterious Den hemmelighetsfulle leiligheten(Mystic Apartment)1948.
Her appearance and way of playing is reminiscent of Vivien Leigh(both were born in November 1913) and they both had their greatest theatrical success as Blanche Dubois in Tennessee Williams`s A Streetcar Named Desire(Sonja at the Trøndelag Theatre).
They also both starred as Camille - none too successfully - and Sonja did the mistake of having feathers glued under her armpits so she wouldn`t prespire; in a loving gesture to Armand she embraced him passionately and feathers flew all over the stage hehehe..
She had a younger brother Knut and she introduced him to the theatrical world in the 30s and he became a better known figure as an actor than her over the years...
The reason is that she filmed in Sweden for so many years (Denmark 1947) and the fact that she became a notoriuous character....
She was a doubleagent (if on our side mind you)during the 2. World War and her extraordinary efforts were never fully cleared when the Nazi regime planted stories about her in 1943. Efforts were made to clear her, but in the year of 2005; Saepo - a Swedish Secret Police; finally disclosed the fact and a book will be in print in a short while, finally clearing Sonja Wigert..
However; she became - to many - a persona non grata and became a recluse and a alcoholic living her final years in Spain. She was married twice(as far as I know); 1939-1941 to editor Torsten Floden and 1945 to Captain Niels de Meza Von Holstein-Rathlou until he died in a planecrash.
When her brother Knut wrote his autobiography; he made terrible errors in his writing of her; such as "she died in 1976"(she died in 1980) and that she starred in Tancred Ibsen`s classic film "Gjest Baardsen" 1939(she never did, Vibeke Falk was the heroine). He only wrote of her passion for high living and that her father had trouble when she as a young girl went all over town, buying everything with credit... He saved his daughter`s reputation by paying for everything, but Knut`s recollections of her never touches her story during the war(he himself did great as well) and it is a shame and tragedy that he never stood up for her..
I did a phonecall to Vigdis Røysing in 1993. She starred with Sonja in her last Norwegian film, the excellent comedy Lån meg din kone 1958(Let me borrow your wife) and she spoke of a nice lady, who for some reason owned a gas station in Sweden
I hope this story and the books and articles finally will clear Sonja Wigert and that she will have the peace she so rightfully deserves:-)
