Introduction
Sonia Darrin (born Sonia Paskowitz; June 16, 1924) is an American retired film actress, best known as "Agnes Lowzier" in The Big Sleep (1946).
Early years
Darrin was born to Louis and Rose Paskowitz, Jewish emigrants from Russia, who immigrated to Galveston, Texas. She has two brothers, Adrian and Dorian. Her father operated a clothing store in Galveston. Around 1940, the family moved to Los Angeles, California.
Career
Darrin danced in the film Lady in the Dark (1944) and worked with Ed Wynn and Alan Young on their early television programs. Possibly her most famous role was that of femme fatale Agnes Lowzier in Howard Hawks's 1946 film The Big Sleep where she plays a bookstore clerk and paramour of minor Los Angeles gangster Joe Brody (played by Louis Jean Heydt).
Personal life
Darrin married William "Bill" Reese, a theater set designer and marketing services company president. The couple had four children, three sons and a daughter, and lived in Manhattan. Their youngest son is the former child actor Mason Reese. Her last two public appearances were on The Mike Douglas Show in the 1970s, and in a documentary film about her brother, Dorian, in 2007.
She has resided on the Upper West Side of Manhattan for over 50 years.