Sonia Darrin

Sonia Darrin (born Sonia Paskowitz; June 16, 1924 – July 19, 2020) was an American film actress, best known for her role as Agnes Lowzier in The Big Sleep (1946). Early years Darrin was born to Louis and Rose Paskowitz, the New York-born off-spring of Jewish emigrants from Russia, who lived in Galveston, Texas. She had two brothers, Adrian and Dorian. Her father operated a clothing store in Galveston. Around 1940, the family moved to Los Angeles, California. Career The family lived in San Diego for a period, during which her dancing teacher was Adolph Bolm. When Bolm was asked to choreograph The Corsican Brothers (1941), he used the entire class. This led Darrin to be interviewed by LeRoy Prinz, the dancing director at Warner Brothers, leading to a small role in The Hard Way (1943). She also danced in the film Lady in the Dark (1944). Darrin's best known role was that of femme fatale Agnes Lowzier in Howard Hawks's film The Big Sleep (1946), in which she plays a paramour of minor Los Angeles gangster Joe Brody (played by Louis Jean Heydt). Notwithstanding several scenes in which Agnes trades quips with Humphrey Bogart's character, Darrin received no onscreen credit for her work in The Big Sleep; this despite the fact that she had already been credited by The New York Times in a captioned promotional photo published five days before the film's opening, and had been the guest of honor at a promotional event held on August 14 at the Pelham Heath Inn in the Bronx, (presumably organized by her agent Arthur Pine, who also represented the venue). Darrin learned years later that this snub had resulted from a heated dispute between Pine and studio chief Jack Warner. On October 18, less than 2 months after the film's premiere, the New York Daily News reported that Darrin and Pine had collaborated on an unofficial Big Sleep tie-in song, which was set to premiere the following day on a live broadcast on WOR. Pine's best efforts notwithstanding, neither this broadcast nor the August 14 dinner appears to have had any appreciable effect on Darrin's ongoing lack of recognition.