You really like her! She’s won two Academy Awards, three Primetime Emmys, two Golden Globes, and a Screen Actors Guild Award, and now Sally Field can expect a new honor – the title of birthday girl.
Happy Birthday, Sally Field!
And that’s because she was born on November 6, 1946, in Pasadena, California, which means that this talented performer is turning 74 years old today! Field began her professional career with a cameo role in the 1962 picture Moon Pilot before moving on to television; first with the short-lived comedy Gidget (1965-1966) and then the far more popular series The Flying Nun (1967-1970).
In 1971, Field managed to shed her “goody-two-shoes” image by playing a disillusioned teenager swept up in the drug scene in the ABC television film Maybe I’ll Come Home in the Spring.
Guest roles in programs such as Alias Smith and Jones (1971, 1972) and Night Gallery (1973) followed before Field again attempted to headline a series. Though The Girl with Something Extra survived for only one season (1973-1974), Field would find critical acclaim for her portrayal of Sybil Dorsett, a woman beset with severe mental issues (purportedly Multiple Personality Disorder), in the fact-based 1976 mini-series Sybil.
One year later, Field joined Burt Reynolds, Jackie Gleason, and Jerry Reed in the road action comedy film Smokey and the Bandit. She would subsequently re-team with Reynolds in three pictures: The End (1978), Hooper (1978), and Smokey and the Bandit II (1980).
Field’s work in the film Norma Rae (1979) – in which she played the title character – won her the greatest reviews of her career (up to that point), helped establish her as a certified dramatic actress, and netted her the Oscar for Best Actress.
In the subsequent decade, Field, emboldened by recent success, continued to prove her veracity as a performer. In 1981, she played a foul-mouthed prostitute in the Tommy Lee Jones vehicle Back Roads and received a Golden Globe nomination for the thriller film Absence of Malice.
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Meanwhile, 1984 proved to be a banner year for Field, as she won her second Oscar for the dramatic film Places in the Heart. Her gushing acceptance speech, which included the phrase, “I can’t deny the fact that you like me..right now…you like me,” would prove to be a source of parody for decades to come.
The late ’80s and the whole of the 1990s provided Field with fruitful and worthwhile employment. Of the many hit films she starred in during that era, Steel Magnolias (1989), Soapdish (1991) with Whoopi Goldberg and Carrie Fisher, Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) with Robin Williams, Forrest Gump (1994) with Tom Hanks, Homeward Bound (1993), and its sequel (1996) would prove the most successful.
After an absence of over 15 years, Field’s returned to the small screen, first with a role in mini-series A Woman of Independent Means (1995), then as a guest star in series like The Larry Sanders Show (1996), ER (in which she had a recurring role), and The Court (2002).
Between 2006 and 2011, Field starred in ABC serial Brothers & Sisters (alongside the likes of Calista Flockhart, Rachel Griffiths, Rob Lowe, Emily VanCamp, and Matthew Rhys). She played Walker family matriarch, Nora.
Field’s other acting credits include The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) and its sequel (2014) – in which she played Aunt May – Lincoln (2012), Little Evil (2017), and episodes of Maniac (2018), and Dispatches from Elsewhere (2020).
Outside of her acting, Field’s is known for her activism and her efforts to raise awareness of osteoporosis, the bone disease which she suffers from. She is also a published writer – In Pieces (2018).
Entertainment Hub would like to wish Sally Field a very happy birthday and you can too by clicking on the Twitter link below.
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