Shirley Anne Field was a highly acclaimed British actress who enjoyed a long and distinguished career in film, theatre, and television. Born in Britain, she began her career as a photographic model to support herself while attending acting school. Her breakthrough role came when she was cast as Tina the Beauty Queen opposite Sir Laurence Olivier in the classic film "The Entertainer", which marked the beginning of her proper career.
Shirley Anne's subsequent role as Doreen in "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning" solidified her status as a major film star at the tender age of 22. Her name was featured above the title in all major cinemas around Leicester Square, a record that has yet to be surpassed. She continued to work with notable directors and actors, including Tony Richardson, Lindsay Anderson, and Alan Sillitoe.
Her success in Britain soon led to Hollywood recognition, and she was cast alongside Steve McQueen and Robert Wagner in the film "The War Lover". She also starred in the Hollywood blockbuster "Kings of the Sun" with Yul Brynner and George Chakiris, filmed in Mexico.
Throughout her career, Shirley Anne balanced her film work with theatre and television performances in Britain and around the world. She played the lead in "Wait Until Dark" in South Africa and appeared in the U.S. television drama "Santa Barbara". In the 1980s, she reunited with director Stephen Frears, with whom she had worked at the Royal Court, and starred in the successful film "My Beautiful Laundrette".
In the 1990s, she appeared in the film "Hear My Song", and in recent years, she has toured in theatre productions such as "The Cemetery Club" and "Five Blue Hair Ladies Sitting on a Green Park Bench". Late in her career, she appeared alongside Flora Spencer Longhurst in the short film "Beautiful Relics", directed by Adrian Hedgecock.
