Quick Facts
| Intro | American former film and television actress | ||
| Is | Actor Television actor Film actor Stage actor | ||
| From | United States of America | ||
| Field | Film, TV, Stage & Radio | ||
| Gender | female | ||
| Birth | 1939, Oak Ridge, Tennessee | ||
| Age | 84 years | ||
| Family |
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Biography
Sonya Wilde (born 1939) is an American former film and television actress. She was active in the 1960s and is best known for her role of Bernice Lee/Lila Brownell in her first movie in 1960, "I Passed For White."
Early life
Sonya Wilde was born Sonya Jean Wilde, in 1939, in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
Career
Wilde made her acting debut in 1957, as an understudy and replacement in the role of Maria in the Broadway play, West Side Story. The role was originally played by Carol Lawrence.
Her film debut was in 1960 in the Fred M. Wilcox-directed film, I Passed for White. Wilde played the role of "Bernice Lee / Lila Brownell," a mulatto girl who marries a white man (played by James Franciscus.)
After the film, Wilde mostly worked on television.
1960
- as Notoma in "The Man Everyone Hated" episode of Death Valley Days
- as Polly Lassiter in "The Kinfolk" episode of Tales of Wells Fargo
- as Aleeah in "Two Trails to Santa Fe" episode of Cheyenne
- as Carrie McClane in "The Last Viking" episode of Bonanza
1961
- as White Deer in "The Lost Tribe" episode of Rawhide
- as Bonnie Craig/Joy Lebaron in "The Case of the Meddling Medium" and "The Case of the Violent Vest" episodes of Perry Mason
- as Tani in "Johnny Sergeant" episode of Gunslinger
- as Caroline in "Johnny Sergeant" episode of The Americans
1962
- as Maria in "License to Steal" episode of Target: The Corruptors!
In 1960, she also appeared in "Hollywood Deb Stars" episode of the The Bob Hope Show.
Personal life
Wilde married a Tennessee banker and politician, Jake Butcher, on 6 April 1962. They had met on a blind date on New Year's Eve of 1961. The couple had four children: Maria, Scarlett, Brad, and Jason Butcher.
Butcher's operated banks in Tennessee. His bank chain collapsed in February 1983, which led to the family declaring bankruptcy. To avoid the negative publicity, the couple moved to the exclusive Sweetwater Club subdivision just outside Orlando, Florida, in the spring of 1983. Butcher was sentenced to prison for banking fraud, in 1985. The couple then divorced and Wilde went to court in 1986 to try to keep the family's $675,000 home in Orlando.
