Sonya Wilde (born 1937) is an American former actress, best known for her starring role in the 1960 film ''

I Passed for White ''I Passed for White'' is a 1960 film directed and adapted for the screen by Fred M. Wilcox from a novel of the same name by Reba Lee "as told to" Mary Hastings Bradley. The film stars Sonya Wilde and James Franciscus and features Jimmy Lydon, ...

''. She started her career as Maria on Broadway with the original cast of ''

West Side Story ''West Side Story'' is a musical conceived by Jerome Robbins with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by Arthur Laurents. Inspired by William Shakespeare's play ''Romeo and Juliet'', the story is set in the mid-1 ...

''.

Career

On Broadway, Wilde was an understudy and replacement in the role of Maria in ''

'' (1957).

Selected filmography

*''

'' (1960)

Selected television

*''

Bonanza ''Bonanza'' is an American Western television series that ran on NBC from September 13, 1959, to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 432 episodes, ''Bonanza'' is NBC's longest-running western, the second-longest-running western series on U ...

'' (1960) *''

Cheyenne The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Their Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized nations: the Southern Cheyenne, who are enroll ...

'' (1960) *''

The Americans ''The Americans'' is an American historical drama, period spy fiction, spy drama television series created by Joe Weisberg that aired on the FX (TV channel), FX television network for six seasons from January 30, 2013, to May 30, 2018. Weisberg ...

'' (1961) *''

Gunslinger Gunfighters, also called gunslingers (), or in the 19th and early 20th centuries gunmen, were individuals in the American Old West who gained a reputation of being dangerous with a gun and participated in gunfights and shootouts. Today, the t ...

'' (1961) *''

Perry Mason Perry Mason is a fictional character, an American criminal defense lawyer who is the main character in works of detective fiction written by Erle Stanley Gardner. Perry Mason features in 82 novels and 4 short stories, all of which involve a c ...

'' (1961) *'' Rawhide'' (1961) *Death Valley Days (1960)

Private life

In 1962, Wilde married the banker

Jake Butcher Jacob Franklin Butcher (May 8, 1936 – July 19, 2017) was an American banker and politician. He built a financial empire in East Tennessee and was the Democratic Party nominee for governor of Tennessee in 1978. He was also the primary promot ...

, having met him on New Year's Eve 1961 on a blind date. He later became a politician, before spending seven years in prison for fraud. They had four children. Following her husband's 1985 20-year jail term for bank fraud (he served seven years), Wilde went to court in 1986 to try to keep the family's $675,000 home in the exclusive Sweetwater Club subdivision just outside

Orlando Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures rele ...

References

External links

*
Trailer for ''I Passed for White'', featuring Sonya Wilde
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilde, Sonya Living people 1939 births 20th-century American actresses American film actresses American stage actresses American television actresses 21st-century American women