Sally Field

Background

Sally Field was born in Pasadena, California on November 6, 1946. Her father was an Army commander, while her mother was an actress. Richard Field is her brother. She attended Portola Middle School in Van Nuys and subsequently Birmingham High School, where she participated in extracurricular activities such as drama and cheerleading.

Field attended an acting workshop at Columbia Studios, where she was invited to audition for the lead part in the 1965 television series “Gidget.” Although the series only lasted one season, Field became a fan favorite with viewers — particularly teens — that when the show was re-aired, it garnered unusually high ratings. Her first major film, “The Way West,” was released in 1967, and she began performing in a new T.V. series called “The Flying Nun,” which was a tremendous hit with the audience. She acted in a couple of television movies between 1970 and 1974, one of which was the suspense thriller “Home for the Holidays.”

She resolved to remake herself by studying acting with Lee Strasberg, a well-known acting coach. She discovered how to be a more diverse artist throughout her training. Her enhanced acting abilities helped her get the lead part in “Sybil,” a 1976 television film, and win an Emmy Award for the role. The part also helped her distinguish herself as an actress capable of venturing into other genres aside from sitcoms. In 1977, she acted in the film “Smokey and the Bandit,” which became one of the year’s highest-grossing movies. She demonstrated her dramatic acting skills once more in the 1979 film “Norma Rae” and earned the Cannes Film Festival’s Best Female Performance Prize. She also won an Academy Award for Best Actress for the role by the following year.

Field only starred in films from 1981 to 1990, and she proceeded to experiment with other types of characters, earning a slew of honors and awards in the process. In 1984, she was nominated for a second Academy Award for her performance in “Places in the Heart.” She made her directorial debut in 1996 through the television feature “The Christmas Tree.” In 1998, she directed an episode of the T.V. miniseries “From the Earth to the Moon,” and her first film, “Beautiful” in 2000. She was praised for her powerful portrayal of a bipolar mother in the T.V. drama “E.R.” and her portrayal of a matriarch in the drama “Brothers and Sisters.”

From 1968, Field was married to Steven Craig, but the couple divorced in 1973. The couple has two children, Peter Craig and Eli Craig. In 1984, Field married Alan Greisman, her second spouse. Sam, their son, was born in 1987. Field and Greisman, however, split up in 1994.