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Shirley Anne Field

Shirley Anne Field

Born on June 27th, 1938

Forest Gate, Essex, England, UK

Died on December 10th, 2023

Biography

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). Description above from the Wikipedia article Shirley Anne Field, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Filmography

Beautiful Relics

2014

Evie

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The Power of Three

2011

Jenni

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The Kid

2010

Margaret

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Christie Malry's Own Double-Entry

2000

Mary the Mother of Christie

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Loving Deadly

1994

Madame

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U.F.O. The Movie

1993

Supreme Commander

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Anna Lee: Headcase

1993

Mrs. Westerman

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Hear My Song

1991

Cathleen Doyle

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The Rachel Papers

1989

Mrs. Seth Smith

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Getting It Right

1989

Anne

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Shag

1989

Mrs. Clatterbuck

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My Beautiful Laundrette

1985

Rachel

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Risking It

1977

Joanne Clewes

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House of the Living Dead

1974

Mary Anne Carew

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A Touch of the Other

1970

Elaine

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Hell Is Empty

1967

Shirley McGee

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Shotgun

1966

Madeleine

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Alfie

1966

Carla

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Doctor in Clover

1966

Nurse Bancroft

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The Wedding March

1966

Laure

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Kings of the Sun

1963

Ixchel

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The Damned

1962

Joan

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The War Lover

1962

Daphne Caldwell

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Lunch Hour

1962

Girl

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Man in the Moon

1960

Polly

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Saturday Night and Sunday Morning

1960

Doreen

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Beat Girl

1960

Dodo

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The Entertainer

1960

Tina Lapford

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Peeping Tom

1960

Pauline Shields

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Once More, with Feeling!

1960

Angela Hooper

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And the Same to You

1960

Iris Collins

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Upstairs and Downstairs

1959

Arriving Passenger 2 (uncredited)

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Horrors of the Black Museum

1959

Angela Banks

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Seven Thunders

1957

Prostitute

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The Flesh Is Weak

1957

Susan

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The Good Companions

1957

Redhead - Three Graces

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Loser Takes All

1956

Attractive Girl in Salle Rivée (uncredited)

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The Weapon

1956

Character TBA

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Lost

1956

Girl Working at Taxi Garage

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All for Mary

1955

Young Woman on Aeroplane

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Simon and Laura

1955

Minor Role

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