Description:
Shirley Temple is an Academy Award-winning actress and tap dancer, who is best known for being an iconic American child actress of the 1930s, and enjoyed a notable career as a diplomat as an adult. She rose to fame at the age of six in Bright Eyes in 1934, and starred in a series of films which won her positive critical reception and saw her become the top grossing star at the American box-office during the height of the Great Depression. In later life, she became a United States ambassador and diplomat.
Charles Black, the San Francisco businessman she married after divorcing John Agar, admitted to her while they were courti
Shirley Temple is an Academy Award-winning actress and tap dancer, who is best known for being an iconic American child actress of the 1930s, and enjoyed a notable career as a diplomat as an adult. She rose to fame at the age of six in Bright Eyes in 1934, and starred in a series of films which won her positive critical reception and saw her become the top grossing star at the American box-office during the height of the Great Depression. In later life, she became a United States ambassador and diplomat.
Charles Black, the San Francisco businessman she married after divorcing John Agar, admitted to her while they were courting that he had never seen any of her movies.
In recent years she openly admitted to a mastectomy operation, perhaps the first public figure ever to do so, and she encouraged other women who required the surgery to follow her example without fear.
Her daughter "Lorax" (Lori Black) was the bass player for the rock band The Melvins .
When she was to play the part of Beauty in a production of "Beauty and the Beast", she was amused when her then very young daughter remarked, "Gee, Mom, you'll make a swell Beast!".
She was supposed to play Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz (1939), but 20th Century Fox refused to lend her to MGM, so Judy Garland was cast in the role.
When she was seven years old, her life was insured with Lloyd's of London, and the contract stipulated that no benefits would be paid if the child film star met with death or injury while intoxicated.
Has three children: Linda Susan Agar, whom Charles Black later adopted, (b. January 30, 1948), Charles Alden Black Jr. "Charlie" (born in Bethesda, Maryland, April 24, 1952) and Lori Alden Black (b. April 9, 1954). Both daughters were born in Santa Monica, California, at the same hospital, not to mention delivered by the same doctor, as Shirley had been years before.
Her mother, Gertrude Temple, did her hair in pin curls for each movie. Every hairstyle had exactly 56 curls.
Became a Dame of Malta, although NOT from the officially recognized Roman Catholic order -- but rather from a non-Roman Catholic unaffiliated entity.
Actresses Shirley Jones and Shirley MacLaine were both named after her.
She learned her trade at Meglin's, a popular talent school. Judy Garland was once a fellow "Meglin Kiddie".
From the late 1960s onward she was increasingly active in Republican Party politics. She served as U.S. ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia and held other government-related positions.
Appears on cover of The Beatles's "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album.
Auditioned twice to be in "Our Gang" / "The Little Rascals." She apparently failed the first audition, and made the second while she was appearing in the "Baby Burlesks" series. "Our Gang" director Robert F. McGowan refused to agree to Shirley's mother's request that Shirley receive star billing with "Our Gang," so she didn't get in.
Briefly considered for the role of Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz (1939), but it was determined that her singing limitations were "insurmountable," and Judy Garland, MGM's first choice, was cast instead.
She was voted the 38th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
When she was a teenager her bodyguard was Louis Dean Palmer, who she called "Palmtree".
At age six she became the first recipient of the juvenile academy award.
2005: Premiere Magazine ranked her as #33 on a list of the Greatest Movie Stars of All Time in their Stars in Our Constellation feature.
Was named #18 Actress, The American Film Institutes 50 Greatest Screen Legends
According to author Garry Wills in "John Wayne's America", director John Ford had serious issues with women, which carried over onto his sets. When he made Wee Willie Winkie (1937) with Shirley, she was a child as well as the top box office star in America and he treated her well. When she was cast in Fort Apache (1948), she was a young woman and he did not. Like her role in Wee Willie Winkie (1937), she played the "cute but unmanageable troublemaker at the post" who is befriended by and relies on an avuncular sergeant, both times played by Victor McLaglen. McLaglen had been blackballed by Ford for the previous seven years, but was brought back into the Ford stock company with this film. When Ford met Shirley, whose husband John Agar he had also cast in the picture, he rudely asked her, "Now where did you go to school, Shirley? Did you graduate?".
Trivia:
Is portrayed by Ashley Rose and by Emily Hart in Child Star: The Shirley Temple Story (2001)
Second husband Charles Black was a businessman and maritime issues consultant. He served on a Commerce Department advisory committee and several National Research Council panels. He also co-founded a Massachusetts-based company that developed unmanned deep-ocean search and survey imaging systems. He died of bone marrow disease at age 86. It had been diagnosed three years earlier.
She calls it corny but she admitted that she fell in love with Charles Black at first sight. They met while she was in Honolulu. He was working for a shipping company there at the time.
She presented Walt Disney with his special Academy Award for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). It was a standard-sized Oscar with seven little Oscars.
11/1/06: She broke her wrist in a fall at her northern California home.
Bill Robinson (aka "Bojangles Robinson") was her idol when she was a child, and she got to work with him on four pictures.
At the age of 6, she was the youngest presenter at the Oscars ever. She presented the "Best Actress" award in 1935. The winner was Claudette Colbert.
1936: She received a new contract from 20th Century-Fox, retroactive on September 9, paying her over $50,000 per film.
A soft cocktail - Shirley Temple - was created in her honor consisting of, Ginger Ale (or 7-Up), Grenadine and Orange Juice, topped with a Maraschino Cherry and a slice of lemon.
In a 1988 interview with Larry King, she stated that out of the $3 million she generated for 20th Century Fox she only saw $45,000 in her trust fund.
A close friend and supporter of Republican Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan.
A vocal supporter of the Vietnam War, when running for Congress as a Republican in 1967 Temple consistently argued that the US needed to send more troops to South East Asia.
Her childhood home is located at 231 Rockingham Avenue, Los Angeles, California (Brentwood).
While her first daughter was delivered naturally, her son and her second daughter Lori were delivered by Cesarean.
Was pregnant with daughter Linda Susan "Susie" Agar (later changed to Black), during the filming of That Hagen Girl (1947).
Her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is at 1500 Vine Street.
When Gary Cooper first met Shirley Temple on the set of their movie Now and Forever (1934) he asked for her autograph.
Aunt of Marina Black.
Her two reputations (child star and ambassador) were once parodied on Saturday
Night Live (1975). In the skit, Temple (played by Laraine Newman) is ambassador to Ghana, but still in her cute child star persona. She cutely talks Ghana's president (Garrett Morris) out of waging wars.
While at MGM in 1941, Shirley's mother turned down Babes on Broadway (1941), Panama Hattie (1942), National Velvet (1944), an Andy Hardy entry and Barnacle Bill (1941) for Shirley as not showcasing the child star properly. MGM finally put her into Kathleen (1941) and settled her contract.
In 1965 she filmed a TV pilot called "Go Fight City Hall" but it did not sell.
From 1964 through 1966 she chaired the program division of the San Francisco Film Festival. She resigned that position when she objected to the "pornographic" content of Mai Zetterling's Nattlek (1966).
In 1967 she ran against Paul McCloskey in the Republican primary for California's 11th Congressional District. McCloskey won with 52,878 votes to her 34,521. One of the newspaper headlines read: "McCloskey Torpedoes Good Ship Lollypop".
She was named a delegate to the United Nations 1969 by President Nixon.
In 1972, she was sworn in as Special Assistant to the Chairman of the President's Council on Environment. It was while serving in that position that she underwent a radical mastectomy. Her valorous handling of the publicity about the operation brought courage to thousands of women.
She was elected to the board of directors of Walt Disney Productions in May, 1974.
In the fall of 1974 she was appointed American Ambassador to Ghana. Her excellent record during her two years in that position prompted Henry Kissinger to refer to her as "able and tough".
In the summer of 1976, she was named Chief of Protocol for the State Department.
She was considered for the part of Veda in the Joan Crawford drama Mildred Pierce (1945) but never tested.
On Easter Sunday 1936, Joel McCrea sent Shirley a live bunny as a gift.
Was a Girl Scout.
Best friend of Buddy Ebsen, who used to be her dancing partner.
Release of her book, "Child Star: An Autobiography".
Presented with the SAG Lifetime Achievement Award by Dakota Fanning and Jamie Lee Curtis. [January 2006]
Awarded the Life Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild. [January 2006]
U.S. Chief of Protocol
U.S. Ambassador to Czechoslovakia
Delegate to the United Nations
Recipient of Kennedy Center Honors
Release of the book, "Shirley Temple: A Pictorial History of the World's
Greatest Child Star" by Rita Dubas.
U.S. Ambassador to Ghana
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Tags: Actress (26), American (7), Died 2014 (5), Born 1928 (5), Cute (3), Child Actress (3), Female (2), Old Hollywood (2), Dancer (2), 1948s (1), Born April 23 (1), Lead Actress (1), Triple Threat (1), Hollywood Walk Of Fame (1), Great Actress (1), Republican (1), Sensual (1), Sultry (1), Curly (1)
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