Sally Field is an American actress, director, and producer born on 6th November 1946. She’s been in the spotlight for over five decades, winning numerous awards like two Oscars, two Golden Globes, and three Emmy Awards. She’s also been nominated for a Tony Award and two British Academy Film Awards. In 2014, she got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and the National Medal of Arts. In 2019, she received the Kennedy Center Honor, and in 2023, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award.
She started her career on TV, starring in shows like Gidget, The Flying Nun, and The Girl with Something Extra. She won an Emmy for her role in the TV film Sybil. Her first movie appearance was in Moon Pilot, followed by roles in The Way West, Stay Hungry, Smokey and the Bandit, and more. She won Oscars for her performances in Norma Rae and Places in the Heart. You might also know her from films like Forrest Gump and Mrs. Doubtfire.
In the 2000s, Sally Field returned to TV with roles in ER and Brothers & Sisters. She played Mary Todd Lincoln in Lincoln and Aunt May in The Amazing Spider-Man movies. Recently, she appeared in Hello, My Name Is Doris and 80 for Brady, as well as the Netflix series Maniac.
After a 15-year break, Field returned to Broadway in 2002 and later appeared in The Glass Menagerie. She also performed in London’s West End in All My Sons.
| Full Name | Sally Margaret Field |
| Date of Birth | November 6, 1946 |
| Place of Birth | Pasadena, California, USA |
| Occupation | Actress, Director, Producer, Activist |
| Height | 5 feet 3 inches (160 cm) |
| Spouse | Steven Craig (1968–1975) Alan Greisman (1984–1993) |
| Children | Peter Craig, Eli Craig, Samuel Greisman |
| Net Worth | $50 million |
Sally Field Early Life and Education
Sally Field was born in Pasadena, California, on November 6, 1946. Her mom, Margaret Field was an actress and her dad Richard Dryden Field was in the Army during World War II. She has a brother named Richard D. Field, who’s a physicist and a teacher. Her parents split up in 1950, and her mom remarried on January 21, 1952, in Tijuana, Mexico, to Jock Mahoney who was an actor and stuntman. Field revealed in her 2018 book that she experienced abuse from Mahoney when she was a kid.
During her teenage years, Field went to Portola Middle School and Birmingham High School in Van Nuys. She was even a cheerleader there! Some notable classmates from her graduating class in 1964 were Michael Milken, a financier, and Michael Ovitz, a talent agent. Cindy Williams, the actress was also at the same school just two years behind Field.
Career
Sally Field started her TV career as the beach-loving Gidget in a show called Gidget from 1965 to 1966. Even though the show was canceled after just one season, reruns during the summer got good ratings making it a hit later on. Then, ABC gave Field a new role in The Flying Nun where she played Sister Bertrille for three seasons, from 1967 to 1970.
But Field didn’t like working on The Flying Nun because she felt like she wasn’t treated well by the people in charge. After that, she found it hard to get good roles because she was always seen as the same type of character. In 1971, she starred in a TV movie called Maybe I’ll Come Home in the Spring, where she played a teenager who runs away from home and comes back with a hippie.
She made some guest appearances on TV shows in the mid-1970s, including one on Alias Smith and Jones. Then in 1973, she got a main role in a show called The Girl with Something Extra, which aired for a year. After that show ended, she went to acting school to learn from Lee Strasberg who helped her get past her old TV image.
After studying with Strasberg, Sally Field got a big role in a TV movie called Sybil in 1976. She played a woman with multiple personalities and her performance won her an Emmy Award in 1977. This helped her break away from being typecast as the same kind of character she always played before.
In 1977, Sally Field starred in a big movie called Smokey and the Bandit alongside Burt Reynolds, Jackie Gleason, and Jerry Reed. It was the second-highest-grossing film of that year. Two years later she played the main character in a movie called Norma Rae, where she showed her serious acting skills. Critics praised her performance and she even won awards like Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival and an Oscar for her role.
After that, Sally Field acted in a few more movies with Burt Reynolds like The End, Hooper, and Smokey and the Bandit II. In 1981, she tried a different kind of role, playing a rough-talking prostitute in a movie called Back Roads. She got nominated for awards for her roles in movies like Absence of Malice and Kiss Me Goodbye.
Then, in 1984, she won her second Oscar for her part in a movie called Places in the Heart. Her acceptance speech became famous because she said, “You like me, you like me!” This line was a joke referencing a famous line from one of her previous movies, but not everyone got it. She later joked about it in a commercial.
In 1985, she acted in a romantic comedy called Murphy’s Romance with James Garner. The next year she was featured in Playboy magazine, but only for an interview not as a model. She also received an award from Women in Film that year.
In 1989, she was nominated for another Golden Globe for her role in Steel Magnolias, where she played a character named M’Lynn.
Back in the early 1990s, Sally Field appeared in quite a few movies. You might remember her as the voice of Sassy in Disney’s Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey and as the wife in Mrs. Doubtfire. She also played Tom Hanks‘s mom in Forrest Gump, even though she wasn’t much older than him.
She had roles in other films too, like Not Without My Daughter and Soapdish. Sally also won an award for her role as a mom seeking justice in Eye for an Eye. She even did some voice acting on King of the Hill.
In the 2000s, she played Dr. Abby Lockhart’s mom on ER and won an Emmy for it. She also directed some TV shows and a movie called Beautiful.
In 2006, Sally joined the cast of Brothers & Sisters and won an Emmy for her role as Nora Walker. She later talked about osteoporosis in The Doctors.
You might recognize her as Aunt May in the Spider-Man movies or from her role as Mary Todd Lincoln in Lincoln, which got her nominated for lots of awards.
Sally got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2014 and started co-hosting TCM in 2015. She starred in Hello, My Name Is Doris and got nominated for another award.
She went back to Broadway in 2017 for The Glass Menagerie and was nominated for a Tony Award. Her memoir, In Pieces, was published in 2018.
In 2018, she was in the Netflix series Maniac, and in 2020, she starred in Dispatches from Elsewhere on AMC.
In 2022, Sally Field was announced to star in a comedy movie called 80 for Brady, alongside Tom Brady, Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Rita Moreno. and In 2023, she received the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award.
Net Worth
Sally Field’s Net Worth is estimated to be $50 Million as of 2024, according to Celebrity Net Worth.
Personal life
First, Sally Field was married to Steven Craig from 1968 to 1975, but they separated in 1973. They had two sons together: Peter Craig who writes books and scripts and Eli Craig who acts and directs movies.
After that, she dated Burt Reynolds from 1976 to 1980. They even worked together in four movies during that time. But in 1980, they split up, though they still saw each other off and on until 1982.
Then, in 1984 she married Alan Greisman. They had a son named Sam in 1987 but they ended up divorcing in 1994.
One scary incident happened in 1988. Sally and some of her family were on a plane owned by Merv Griffin when it had engine trouble and crashed while trying to take off. Luckily, everyone survived with only minor injuries.
Philanthropy
In 2005, Sally Field found out she had osteoporosis a condition that weakens bones. So, she started a campaign called “Rally with Sally for Bone Health” to spread awareness. She got help from Roche and GlaxoSmithKline to promote a treatment called Boniva. The campaign urged people to get checked for bone problems early using bone-density scans.
In the same year, she got a special award from the American Academy of Achievement for her work in acting and activism.
In 2007, when Sally won an Emmy Award for her acting she made a strong statement about mothers and war. But when she said “goddamn” on stage the TV channel cut off her speech. They said they did it because some people might find her words offensive.
Sally is big on women’s rights. She’s been part of a group called Vital Voices Global Partnership, which helps women worldwide. She also supported Hillary Clinton’s run for president in 2008.
She’s also a supporter of LGBTQ rights. In 2012, she got an award from the Human Rights Campaign for being an ally. Her son Samuel is gay.
In 2019, Sally got arrested at a climate change protest in Washington, D.C., hosted by Jane Fonda.
