|
|
|
|
| Birth Name(s) : Sally Margaret Field |
Date of Birth: November 6, 1946 |
| Status:
N/A
|
Partner:
N/A |
| Profession:
Actor |
| << Add Sally Field To Your Favorites |
|
Full Sally Field Biography
This girlishly attractive actress-the daughter of actress Margaret Field-began her career as the impossibly perky TV "Gidget" in 1965, then went on to play the impossibly perky "The Flying Nun" from 1967 to 1970. Some limited fame and financial rewards accrued, but both roles proved formidable obstacles in Field's subsequent attempt to make it as a serious actress. Things began going her way in the mid 1970s: She played the female lead in the quirky 1976 bodybuilding drama Stay Hungry and a woman with 17 distinct personalities in the compelling breakthrough TV movie Sybil (1976), for which she won an Emmy. A romantic liaison with Burt Reynolds led to their costarring in 1977's Smokey and the Bandit and 1978's Hooper a lighthearted look at movie stuntmen (which echoed her life as the stepdaughter of stuntman extraordinaire Jock Mahoney).
In 1979 Field took on a challenging, serious role as a reluctant union organizer in the drama Norma Rae for which she won a Best Actress Academy Award. Field did solid leading work throughout the 1980s, playing an ambitious reporter in 1981's controversial Absence of Malice a haunted widow in Kiss Me Goodbye (1982), and a determined Texas mother in Places in the Heart (1984, one of the more distinguished pictures in that decade's losing-the-farm subgenre; she won another Best Actress Academy Award for that film, occasioning her notorious "You like me" acceptance speech).
Like other actresses, she began developing and producing her own film vehicles, leading to such worthwhile projects as Murphy's Romance (1985), Punchline (1988), and Steel Magnolias (1989). She also starred in the melodramatic Not Without My Daughter and the broadly comic Soapdish (both 1991). That same year she wore a producer's hat for the first time on a film in which she did not star: the Julia Roberts tearjerker Dying Young More recently, she provided the voice of Sassy the cat in Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey (1993), played Robin Williams' estranged wife in Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) and Tom Hanks' mom in Forrest Gump (1994). She returned to TV as star and executive producer of the miniseries "A Woman of Independent Means" (1995). |
|
|
Additional Sally Field Biography
Field was born in Pasadena, California. Her parents, Richard Dryden Field and Margaret Field (a Southern-born actress), divorced in 1950. Her mother subsequently remarried, to actor and stuntman Jock Mahoney.
She attended Birmingham High School in Van Nuys, California. Among her classmates were famed financier Michael Milken and fellow actress Cindy Williams (of Laverne and Shirley fame).
She had several guest appearances, including a recurring role on the western comedy Alias Smith and Jones starring Pete Duel (whom she worked with on Gidget) and Ben Murphy, and the Rod Serling's Night Gallery episode "The Whisper".
Having played mostly comic characters on television, Field had a difficult time being cast in dramatic roles. She studied with famed acting teacher Lee Strasberg. Soon after, Field landed the title role in the 1976 TV film Sybil.
Field's dramatic portrayal of Sybil, a young woman afflicted with multiple personality syndrome in the TV film not only garnered her an Emmy Award in 1977, but also enabled her to break through the typecasting she had experienced from television roles.
She won another Oscar in 1985 for her starring role in Places in the Heart. Her gushing acceptance speech is well-remembered for its earnestness. In it, Field 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!". The line ending in "...I can't deny the fact that you like me, right now, you like me!" is often misquoted as simply "You like me, you really like me!" which has subsequently been the subject of many parodies. (Field parodied the line herself in a commercial.)
Also in 1985, she co-starred with James Garner in Murphy's Romance. In A&E's biography of Garner, Field reported that her on-screen kiss with Garner was the best cinematic kiss she had ever had.
Field 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, although she did wear the classic leotard and bunny ears "Bunny Outfit" on the cover).
She has had supporting roles in other movies, including Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) in which she played the wife of Robin Williams and the love interest of Pierce Brosnan, followed by the role of Forrest's mother in Forrest Gump (1994). She is only 10 years older than Tom Hanks, with whom she had co-starred six years earlier in Punchline.
On television, Field had a recurring role on ER in the 2000-2001 season as Dr. Abby Lockhart's mother Maggie, who is struggling to cope with bipolar disorder, a role for which she won an Emmy Award in 2001. After her critically acclaimed stint on the show, she returned to the role in 2003 and 2006. She also starred in the very short-lived 2002 series The Court.
Field has also ventured into the realm of directing. Her first directorial stint was for the television film, The Christmas Tree (1996). She also directed the feature film Beautiful (2000), as well as an episode of the TV mini-series, From the Earth to the Moon (1998).
Field was a late addition to the ABC drama Brothers & Sisters, which debuted in September 2006. In the show's pilot, the role of matriarch Nora Walker had been played by actress Betty Buckley. However, the producers of the show decided to take the character of Nora in another direction, and Field was cast in the role. She won the 2007 Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in her role as Nora Walker. Field also has an upcoming voice role as Marina del Ray the villian in Disney's The Little Mermaid III. This movie is scheduled for a direct-to-DVD release in 2008.
Currently, Field can be seen on television as the compensated spokesperson for Roche Laboratories' postmenopausal osteoporosis treatment medication, Boniva.
Field dated Burt Reynolds for many years. She was first married to Steven Craig from 1968 to 1975. In 1984, she married Alan Greisman. The couple divorced in 1993.
Field has two sons from her first marriage. Her son Peter Craig is a novelist; his brother Eli Craig is an actor and director. Her third son, Sam Greisman, is from her second marriage. |
|
| Add Sally Field Biography (SuperUSERS) + |
Sally Field Quote(s)
| My agent said, 'You aren't good enough for movies.' I said, 'You're fired.' |
|
| Add Sally Field Review/Comment
|
HQ Sally Field Pictures (1) | Random Sally Field Picture
|
| << Back to the Sally Field Homepage |
|
