Shirley Anne Field

Birthday: 1938-06-27
Deathday: 2023-12-10
Birthplace: Forest Gate, Essex, England, UK
Gender: Female
Owned By: Unowned

Shirley Anne Field (born Shirley Broomfield; June 27, 1938 - December 10, 2023) was an English actress who performed on stage, film and television since 1955, prominent during the British New Wave.

After a course at the Lucie Clayton School and Model Agency, she became a photographic model for pin-up magazines like Reveille and Titbits. She was subsequently spotted by Bill Watts, who ran a theatrical agency and obtained for her roles in late 1950s British films, usually uncredited. Her first appearance in a film was as an extra in Simon and Laura (1955). She had small parts in All for Mary (1955), Lost (1956), Yield to the Night (1956) (directed by J. Lee Thompson), It's Never Too Late (1956), It's a Wonderful World (1956), The Weapon (1956), Loser Takes All (1956), The Silken Affair (1956), Dry Rot (1956), The Good Companions (1957) (again for Thompson), Seven Thunders (1957), and The Flesh Is Weak (1957). She was in episodes of The New Adventures of Martin Kane (1957) and International Detective. Field's first sizeable film role was in Horrors of the Black Museum (1959). She had minor parts in Once More, with Feeling! (1960) and And the Same to You (1960). Field had a larger role in the controversial Peeping Tom (1960). She appeared on stage in The Lily White Boys with Albert Finney.

In 1960, Field's breakthrough came when she was chosen by Tony Richardson to play the role of model Tina Lapford in The Entertainer (1960), starring Laurence Olivier, distributed by Bryanston Films. Field had a supporting role in Beat Girl (1960), then appeared in probably her best known role as Doreen, the would-be girlfriend of rebellious Arthur Seaton (played by Albert Finney), in the New Wave film Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960).

Field starred alongside Kenneth More in Man in the Moon (1960). With those three big film starring roles in 1960, she became one of the very few actors ever to have their name above the titles in all the major cinemas around Leicester Square simultaneously.

Although offered a role in A Kind of Loving (1962), Field turned it down to play the female lead in a Hollywood financed film, The War Lover (1962), with Steve McQueen. In the UK, she had the lead in Lunch Hour (1962), which was one of her favorite films. For Hammer films, Field starred in The Damned (1963), directed by Joseph Losey. She went to Hollywood to play the female lead in an epic directed by J. Lee Thompson, Kings of the Sun (1963). Thompson had her under personal contract at this stage.

Field went to Italy to appear in The Wedding March (1966), then back in England made Doctor in Clover (1966) and Alfie (1966). She had a supporting role in Hell Is Empty (1967) and later starred in With Love in Mind (1970) and A Touch of the Other (1970), then made House of the Living Dead (1974).

By the late 1970s Field was more commonly seen on TV, in shows such as Centre Play, Shoestring, Buccaneer, Never the Twain and a long run on Santa Barbara as well as TV movies like Two by Forsyth. She had roles in films like My Beautiful Laundrette (1985), Shag (1989), Getting It Right (1989), The Rachel Papers (1989), Hear My Song (1991), UFO (1993), Taking Liberty (1993), Loving Deadly (1994), and At Risk (1994).

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Credits

Year Title Character
2014-11-01 Beautiful Relics Evie
2011-11-10 The Power of Three Jenni
2010-04-22 The Kid Margaret
2000-12-07 Christie Malry's Own Double-Entry Mary the Mother of Christie
1994-01-01 Loving Deadly Madame
1993-12-10 U.F.O. The Movie Supreme Commander
1993-01-10 Anna Lee: Headcase Mrs. Westerman
1991-12-27 Hear My Song Cathleen Doyle
1989-05-12 The Rachel Papers Mrs. Seth Smith
1989-05-05 Getting It Right Anne
1989-04-14 Shag Mrs. Clatterbuck
1985-11-16 My Beautiful Laundrette Rachel
1977-07-05 Risking It Joanne Clewes
1974-08-12 House of the Living Dead Mary Anne Carew
1970-01-01 A Touch of the Other Elaine
1967-12-20 Hell Is Empty Shirley McGee
1966-07-11 Shotgun Madeleine
1966-03-29 Alfie Carla
1966-03-08 Doctor in Clover Nurse Bancroft
1966-02-17 The Wedding March Laure
1963-12-18 Kings of the Sun Ixchel
1962-11-16 The Damned Joan
1962-10-25 The War Lover Daphne Caldwell
1962-01-01 Lunch Hour Girl
1960-10-31 Man in the Moon Polly
1960-10-27 Saturday Night and Sunday Morning Doreen
1960-08-21 Beat Girl Dodo
1960-07-25 The Entertainer Tina Lapford
1960-05-16 Peeping Tom Pauline Shields
1960-02-11 Once More, with Feeling! Angela Hooper
1960-02-01 And the Same to You Iris Collins
1959-11-02 Upstairs and Downstairs Arriving Passenger 2 (uncredited)
1959-04-29 Horrors of the Black Museum Angela Banks
1957-08-06 The Flesh Is Weak Susan
1957-04-22 The Good Companions Redhead - Three Graces
1956-09-09 Loser Takes All Attractive Girl in Salle Rivée (uncredited)
1956-09-01 The Weapon
1956-01-31 Lost Girl Working at Taxi Garage
1955-12-21 All for Mary Young Woman on Aeroplane
1955-11-02 Simon and Laura Minor Role