Sally Field Biography
Biography
|
Field was born in Pasadena, California. Her parents, Richard
Dryden Field and Margaret Field (a Southern-born actress),
divorced in 1950. Her mother re-married to a former stunt-man,
Western actor Jock Mahoney.
Sally Field got her start on television, starring as the
boy-struck surfer girl in the mid-1960s series Gidget. She then
went on to star in The Flying Nun and The Girl with Something
Extra.
Sally Field's first major role was in 1965's sitcom
Gidget.Having played mostly comic characters on television,
Field was not initially regarded as having much potential as a
dramatic actress. In 1976, Field was finally able to show that
she could play this kind of role, starring as the title
character afflicted with multiple personality syndrome in the TV
film Sybil. She won an Emmy Award in 1977 for this performance.
In 1979, she starred as a union organizer in Norma Rae, and won
the Academy Award for Best Actress.
In 1981, Sally Field played a prostitute opposite Tommy Lee
Jones in the South-set comedy Back Roads, which received
middling reviews and grossed $11 million at the box office.
She won another Oscar in 1985 for her starring role in Places in
the Heart; her gushing acceptance speech is one of the best
known of its kind. In it, she stated "I haven't had an orthodox
career, and I've wanted more than anything to have your respect.
The first time I didn't feel it, but this time I feel it, and I
can't deny the fact that you like me, right now, you like me!"
[1]. The line ending in "...I can't deny the fact that you like
me, right now, you like me!" is often misremembered as simply
"You like me, you really like me!" which has subsequently been
the subject of many parodies.
Sally Field has had supporting roles in other movies, including
Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) and Forrest Gump (1994).
On television, Sally Field has a recurring role on ER as Dr.
Abby Lockhart's bipolar mother, for which she won an Emmy in
2001. She also starred in the very short-lived 2002 series The
Court.
Field dated Burt Reynolds for many years, but never accepted his
proposals of marriage. She was first married to Steven Craig
from 1968 to 1975. In 1984, she married Alan Greisman, but
divorced again in 1993. Field has two sons from her first
marriage — one of whom is novelist Peter Craig — and a third son
from her second marriage, Sam Greisman, who is close friends
with the 'Young Hollywood' crowd, like Lindsay Lohan.
Trivia
- While starring on The Flying Nun, Sally tried her hand at singing, releasing an album in 1968 and cracking the Billboard Hot 100 with one single, "Felicidad", in 1967.
- Sally appeared on the cover of the March 1986 issue of Playboy magazine. She was the "Interview" subject in that month's issue. (She did not appear as a pictorial subject inside the magazine).
- Sally was the first choice for Alice in Friday the 13th.
- She has a "Feynman Number" of two, since her brother, theoretical physicist Rick Field, worked with Richard Feynman in the late 1970s.
Film List
- The Way West (1967)
- Stay Hungry (1976)
- Smokey and the Bandit (1977)
- Heroes (1977)
- The End (1978)
- Hooper (1978)
- Norma Rae (1979) – Academy Award for Best Actress
- Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (1979)
- Smokey and the Bandit II (1980)
- Back Roads (1981)
- Absence of Malice (1981)
- Kiss Me Goodbye (1982)
- Places in the Heart (1984) – Academy Award for Best Actress
- Murphy's Romance (1985)
- Surrender (1987)
- Punchline (1988)
- Steel Magnolias (1989)
- Not Without My Daughter (1991)
- Soapdish (1991)
- Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey (1993) (voice)
- Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)
- A Century of Cinema (1994) (documentary)
- Forrest Gump (1994)
- Eye for an Eye (1996)
- Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco (1996)
- Where the Heart Is (2000)
- Say It Isn't So (2001)
- Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde (2003)
- Going Through Splat: The Life and Work of Stewart Stern (2005) (documentary)
- Two Weeks (2006)
This Sally Field Biography Page is Copyright The Planets © 2004 - 2006 Chuck Ayoub