A Tribute To Sally Field
Born: November 06, 1946
Born November 6, 1946, in Pasadena, CA, actress Sally Field was the daughter of another actress,
Margaret_Field, who is perhaps best known to film buffs as the leading lady of the sci-fi
The_Man_From_Planet_X (1951). Field's stepfather was actor/stunt man Jock_Mahoney, who, despite
a certain degree of alienation between himself and his stepdaughter, was the principal influence in
her pursuit of an acting career. Active in high-school dramatics, Field bypassed college to enroll in a
summer acting workshop at Columbia studios. Her energy and determination enabled her to win,
over hundreds of other aspiring actresses, the coveted starring role on the 1965 TV series Gidget.
Gidget lasted only one season, but Field had become popular with teen fans and in 1967 was given a
second crack at a sitcom with The_Flying_Nun; this one lasted three seasons and is still flying around
in reruns.
Gidget 1965
The flying Nun 1967
Somewhere along the way Field made her film debut in The_Way_West (1967) but was more or less
ignored by moviegoers over the age of 21. Juggling sporadic work on stage and TV with a well-
publicized first marriage (she was pregnant during Flying_Nun's last season), Field set about
shedding her "perky" image in order to get more substantial parts. Good as she was as a reformed
junkie in the 1970 TV movie Maybe I'll Come Home in the Spring, by 1972 Field was mired again in
sitcom hell with the short-lived weekly The_Girl_With_Something_Extra. Freshly divorced and with
a new agent, she tried to radically alter her persona with a nude scene in the 1975 film Stay_Hungry,
resulting in little more than embarrassment for all concerned. Finally, in 1976, Field proved her
mettle as an actress in the TV movie Sybil, winning an Emmy for her virtuoso performance as a
woman suffering from multiple personalities stemming from childhood abuse. Following this
triumph, Field entered into a long romance with Burt_Reynolds, working with the actor in numerous
films that were short on prestige but long on box-office appeal.
Sybil
The most well known movie that she shared with Burt Reynolds was Smokey And The Bandit!
By 1979, Field found herself in another career crisis: now she had to jettison the "Burt_Reynolds'
girlfriend" image. She did so with her powerful portrayal of a small-town union organizer in
Norma_Rae (1979), for which she earned her first Academy Award. At last taken completely
seriously by fans and industry figures, Field spent the next four years in films of fluctuating merit
(she also ended her relationship with Reynolds and married again), rounding out 1984 with her
second Oscar for Places in the Heart. It was at the 1985 Academy Awards ceremony that Field
earned a permanent place in the lexicon of comedy writers, talk show hosts, and impressionists
everywhere by reacting to her Oscar with a tearful "You LIKE me! You REALLY LIKE me!" Few liked
her in such subsequent missteps as Surrender (1987) and Soapdish (1991), but Field was able to
intersperse them with winners such as the 1989 weepie Steel_Magnolias and the Robin_Williams
drag extravaganza Mrs._Doubtfire (1993). Field found further triumph as the doggedly determined
mother of Tom_Hanks in the 1994 box-office bonanza Forrest_Gump, which, in addition to mining
box-office gold, also managed to pull in a host of Oscars and various other awards.
Following Gump, Field turned her energies to ultimately less successful projects, such as 1995's Eye
for an Eye with Kiefer_Sutherland and Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco (1996). She also
did some TV work, most notably in Tom_Hanks' acclaimed From the Earth to the Moon miniseries
(1998) and the American Film Institute's 100 Years....100 Movies series. The turn of the century
found Field contributing her talents to a pair of down-home comedy-dramas, first with a cameo
matriarch role in 2000's Where the Heart Is and later that year as director of the Minnie_Driver
vehicle Beautiful. Both films met with near-universal derision from critics; only the Steel_Magnolias
-esque Heart found a modest box-office following.
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