Biography

Emilie Sannom was a Danish silent film actress and aerial acrobat. When she was just a baby the family moved to Florida 1887 hoping for a prosperous future running an orange plantation. Seven years later they returned to Denmark, where she and her sisters Charlotte (1884-1954), Thora (1893-1954) and Ragnhild (1896-1953) all became actresses, from an early age. Emilie Sannom made her film debut in "Gøngehøvdingen /The Partisan Chieftain" (1909). She then took on supporting roles to Danish superstar Asta Nielsen till she landed the role as Ophelia in "Hamlet" (1911) directed by August Blom. It was in "Hamlet" she threw herself down into the castle moat, becoming Denmark's first film actress to perform as a stunt woman. Sannom's films quickly began to showcase her athleticism and venturousism. Production stills from her mid-teens films frequently show her in action: scaling walls, riding horses, performing in daring costumes, escaping from a locked trunk. But she also appeared as a femme fatale, exotic dancer, circus performer and detective. Emilie Sannom played a female sleuth in "Nattens datter / Daughter of the Darkness" (1915), a movie which sparked three sequels over the next two years. Followed by another lady detective as Zilva Bébé's "Panopta" (1918) in four episodes. All in all, Emelie Sannom appeared in some 85 feature films until she retired from the screen in 1922. She was passionately fond of flying and started taking lessons in 1918 but never qualified as a pilot. She appeared in shows around Denmark, performing aerial acrobatics. One of her stunts was to throw herself from a plane opening her parachute at the last minute. In one such show in Grenå on 30 August 1931, the parachute failed to open and she fell to her death. Emelie Sannom had a daughter, Grethe, born 1912 out of wedlock. The father was fellow actor Axel Schultz (1890-1974).