Early life

Sally Field was born in Pasadena, California. Her father, Richard Dryden Field, was an Army officer, and her mother, Margaret Field (née Morlan), was an actress. Following her parents' 1950 divorce, her mother married actor and stuntman Jock Mahoney. Through her maternal grandmother's genealogical line, Field is a descendant of Mayflower passenger and colonial governor William Bradford, her 10 times great-grandfather.

As a teen, Field attended Portola Middle School and Birmingham High School in Van Nuys, where she was a cheerleader. Her classmates included financier Michael Milken, actress Cindy Williams and talent agent Michael Ovitz.

Career

1965-76

Field got her start on television as the boy-crazy surfer girl in the sitcom Gidget (1965-66). The show was not an initial success and was canceled after a single season; however, summer reruns garnered respectable ratings, making the show a belated success. Wanting to find a new starring vehicle for Field, ABC next produced The Flying Nun with Field cast as Sister Bertrille for three seasons, from 1967 to 1970. In an interview included on the Season One DVD release, Field said that she thoroughly enjoyed Gidget, but hated The Flying Nun because she was not treated with respect by the show's directors. Field was then typecast, finding respectable roles difficult to come by. In 1971, Field starred in the ABC TV movie Maybe I'll Come Home in the Spring, playing a discouraged teen runaway who returns home with a bearded, drug-abusing hippie (played by David Carradine). She made several guest television appearances through the mid 1970s, including a recurring role on the western Alias Smith and Jones, a popular TV series starring Gidget co-star Pete Duel. She also appeared in the episode "Whisper" on the TV thriller Night Gallery.

In 1973, Field was cast in a starring role opposite John Davidson in the short-lived series The Girl with Something Extra from 1973 to 1974. Following the series' cancellation, Field studied at the Actors Studio with the esteemed acting teacher Lee Strasberg. Strasberg became a mentor to the actress, helping her to move past her television image of the girl next door. It was during this time period that Field divorced her first husband in 1975.

Soon after studying with Strasberg, Field landed the title role in the 1976 TV film Sybil, based on the book by Flora Rheta Schreiber. Her dramatic portrayal of a young woman afflicted with what was then known as multiple personality disorder earned her a best dramatic actress Emmy Award in 1977 and enabled her to break through the typecasting of her sitcom work.

1977-89

In 1977 she costarred with Burt Reynolds, Jackie Gleason, and Jerry Reed in that year's #2 highest-grossing film, Smokey and the Bandit.

In 1979 Field played the eponymous union organizer in Norma Rae, a successful film that established her as a dramatic actress. Vincent Canby, reviewing the film for the New York Times, wrote: "Norma Rae is a seriously concerned contemporary drama, illuminated by some very good performances and one, Miss Field's, that is spectacular." For her role in Norma Rae, Field won the Best Female Performance Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Field appeared with Reynolds in three more films: (The End, Hooper and Smokey and the Bandit II). In 1981, she continued to change her image, playing a foul-mouthed prostitute opposite Tommy Lee Jones in the South-set film Back Roads. She received Golden Globe nominations for the 1981 drama Absence of Malice and the 1982 comedy Kiss Me Goodbye.

Then came a second Oscar for her starring role in the 1984 drama Places in the Heart. Field's gushing acceptance speech is well remembered and has since been both admired as earnest and parodied as excessive. She said, "I haven't had an orthodox career, and I've wanted more than anything to have your respect. The first time I didn't feel it, but this time I feel it—and I can't deny the fact that you like me, right now, you like me!" Field was actually making a humorous reference to dialog from her role in Norma Rae, but many people missed the connection. Field even parodied herself when she delivered the line (often misquoted as "You like me, you really like me!") in a Charles Schwab commercial.

In 1985, she costarred with James Garner in the romantic comedy Murphy's Romance. In A&E's biography of Garner, she cited her on-screen kiss with Garner as the best cinematic kiss she ever had. The following year, Field appeared on the cover of the March 1986 issue of Playboy magazine, in which she was the interview subject. She did not appear as a pictorial subject in the magazine, although she did wear the classic leotard and bunny-ears outfit on the cover. That year, she received the Women in Film Crystal Award. For her role as matriarch M'Lynn in the film version of Steel Magnolias (1989), she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress.

1990-present

Field had supporting roles in a number of other movies, including Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) in which she played Miranda Hillard, the wife of Robin Williams's character and the love interest of Pierce Brosnan's character Stuart 'Stu' Dunmyer. She then played the mother of Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump (1994), even though she was only 10 years older than Hanks, with whom she had co-starred six years earlier in Punchline.

Field's other 1990s films included Not Without My Daughter, a controversial thriller based on the real-life experience of Betty Mahmoody's escape from Iran with her daughter Mahtob, and Soapdish, a comedy in which she played pampered soap-opera star Celeste Talbert and was joined by an all-star cast including Kevin Kline, Whoopi Goldberg, Elisabeth Shue and Robert Downey, Jr. In 1996 Field received the Berlinale Camera award at the 46th Berlin International Film Festival for her role as a grieving vigilante mother in director John Schlesinger's film Eye for an Eye. She co-starred with Natalie Portman in Where the Heart Is (2000) and appeared opposite Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde.

Field had a recurring role on ER in the 2000-01 season as Dr. Abby Lockhart's mother, Maggie, who suffers from bipolar disorder, a role for which she won an Emmy Award in 2001. After her critically acclaimed stint on the show, she returned to the role in 2003 and 2006. She also starred in the very short-lived 2002 series The Court.

Field's directorial career began with the television film The Christmas Tree (1996). In 1998 she directed the episode "The Original Wives' Club" of the critically acclaimed TV mini-series From the Earth to the Moon, also playing a minor role as Trudy, the wife of astronaut Gordon Cooper. In 2000 she directed the feature film Beautiful.

Field was a late addition to the ABC drama Brothers & Sisters, which debuted in September 2006. In the show's pilot, the role of matriarch Nora Walker was played by actress Betty Buckley. However, the show's producers decided to take the character in another direction, and offered the part to Field, who won the 2007 Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her performance. The drama also starred Calista Flockhart and Rachel Griffiths as Nora's adult daughters.

In November 2009, Field appeared on an episode of The Doctors to talk about osteoporosis and her Rally With Sally Foundation.

She portrayed Aunt May in the Marvel Comics films The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) as well as the 2014 sequel. Field's widely praised portrayal of Mary Todd Lincoln in Steven Spielberg's film Lincoln brought her Best Supporting Actress nominations for the Academy Award, the Golden Globe, and the BAFTA and Screen Actors Guild awards.

On May 5, 2014, Field received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to motion pictures. Her star is located in front of the Hollywood Wax Museum. In January 2015, it was announced that she would co-host TCM.

Personal life

Field was married to Steven Craig from 1968 to 1975. During their marriage, the couple had two sons: Peter Craig (born 1969), a novelist, and Eli Craig (born 1972), an actor and director.

Beginning in the late 1970s, Field was romantically involved with Burt Reynolds for many years, during which time they co-starred in several films, including Smokey and the Bandit, Smokey and the Bandit II, The End, and Hooper.

After the end of her relationship with Reynolds, Field married second husband Alan Greisman in 1984. Together they had one son, Sam, in 1987. Field and Greisman divorced in 1993.

Activism

In 2005, Field was diagnosed with osteoporosis. Her diagnosis led her to create the "Rally With Sally For Bone Health" campaign with support from Roche and GlaxoSmithKline that controversially co-promoted Boniva, a bisphosphonate treatment for osteoporosis. Field's campaign encouraged early diagnosis of such conditions through technology such as bone-density scans.

During the 2007 Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, Field's acceptance speech contained an antiwar: "If the mothers ruled the world, there would be no goddamn wars in the first place." Fox Broadcasting Company, which aired the Emmys, cut the sound and picture after the word "god" and did not cut back to the stage after Field finished talking. An e-mail statement from the company the day after the incident explained that the censorship of Field's speech (among two other censorship incidents during the award ceremony) occurred because "some language during the live broadcast may have been considered inappropriate by some viewers. As a result, Fox's broadcast standards executives determined it appropriate to drop sound and picture during those portions of the show."

Field is an advocate for women's rights. She has served on the board of directors of Vital Voices Global Partnership, an international women's NGO, and has co-hosted the Global Leadership Awards six times. A Democrat, Field supported Hillary Clinton's bid for the Democratic Party nomination in the 2008 presidential election.

The actress is also an activist for gay rights and won the Human Rights Campaign's Ally for Equality Award in 2012. Field's youngest son, Sam, is openly gay.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1962	Moon Pilot	Beatnik girl in lineup
1967	Way West, TheThe Way West	Mercy McBee
1976	Stay Hungry	Mary Tate Farnsworth
1977	Smokey and the Bandit	Carrie / 'Frog'
1977	Heroes	Carol Bell
1978	End, TheThe End	Mary Ellen
1978	Hooper	Gwen Doyle
1979	Norma Rae	Norma Rae	Academy Award for Best Actress
1979	Beyond the Poseidon Adventure	Celeste Whitman
1980	Smokey and the Bandit II	Carrie / 'Frog'
1981	Back Roads	Amy Post
1981	Absence of Malice	Megan Carter
1982	Kiss Me Goodbye	Kay Villano
1984	Places in the Heart	Edna Spalding	Academy Award for Best Actress
1985	Murphy's Romance	Emma Moriarty
1987	Surrender	Daisy Morgan
1987	Lethal Weapon	KTLA Reporter	Uncredited
1988	Punchline	Lilah Krytsick
1989	Steel Magnolias	M'Lynn Eatenton
1991	Not Without My Daughter	Betty Mahmoody
1991	Soapdish	Celeste Talbert / Maggie
1993	Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey	Sassy	Voice role
1993	Mrs. Doubtfire	Miranda Hillard
1994	Century of Cinema, AA Century of Cinema	Herself	Documentary
1994	Forrest Gump	Mrs. Gump
1996	Eye for an Eye	Karen McCann
1996	Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco	Sassy	Voice role
2000	Where the Heart Is	Mama Lil
2000	David Copperfield	Betsey Trotwood
2000	Beautiful		Directorial debut
2001	Say It Isn't So	Valdine Wingfield
2003	Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde	Rep. Victoria Rudd
2005	Going Through Splat: The Life and Work of Stewart Stern	Herself	Documentary
2006	Two Weeks	Anita Bergman
2008	The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning	Marina Del Rey	Voice role
2012	Amazing Spider-Man, TheThe Amazing Spider-Man	Aunt May Parker
2012	Lincoln	Mary Todd Lincoln
2014	Amazing Spider-Man 2, TheThe Amazing Spider-Man 2	Aunt May Parker
2015	Hello, My Name Is Doris	Doris Miler

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1965-66	Gidget	Frances Elizabeth "Gidget" Lawrence	32 episodes
1966-67	Hey, Landlord	Bonnie Banner	4 episodes
1967-70	Flying Nun, TheThe Flying Nun	Elsie Ethrington "Sister Bertrille"	82 episodes
1971-72	Alias Smith and Jones	Clementine Hale	2 episodes
1971	Maybe I'll Come Home in the Spring	Denise "Dennie" Miller	Movie
1971	Hitched	Roselle Bridgeman
1971	Marriage: Year One	Jane Duden
1972	Home for the Holidays	Christine Morgan	Movie
1973-74	Girl with Something Extra, TheThe Girl with Something Extra	Sally Burton	22 episodes
1976	Bridger	Jennifer Melford
1976	Sybil	Sybil Dorsett	Miniseries
1977	Merry Christmas, George Bailey	Mrs. Bailey/Narrator
1979	Carol Burnett & Company	Herself	Episode #1.4
1995	Woman of Independent Means, AA Woman of Independent Means	Bess Alcott Steed Garner	Miniseries
1996	Larry Sanders Show, TheThe Larry Sanders Show	Herself	Episode "Where is the Love?"
1997	King of the Hill	Junie Harper	Episode "Hilloween"; voice role
1998	From the Earth to the Moon	Trudy Cooper	Miniseries; also directed
1999	Cooler Climate, AA Cooler Climate	Iris	Showtime original movie
2000-06	ER	Maggie Wyczenski	12 episodes
2002	The Court	Justice Kate Nolan	6 episodes
2005	Conviction
2006-11	Brothers & Sisters	Nora Walker	109 episodes

Discography

Singles

• "Felicidad" (Billboard #94, Cashbox #91) / "Find Yourself A Rainbow"—Colgems 1008—August 1967
• "Follow The Star" (both sides, promo only) -- Colgems 107—December 1967
• "Golden Days" / "You're A Grand Old Flag"—Colgems 1014—January 1968

Album

• Star of The Flying Nun—Colgems COM-106 (Mono)/COS-106 (Stereo) -- Billboard #172, December 1967

Awards and nominations

Year	Association	Category	Nominated work	Result
1977	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie	Sybil	Won
1978	Golden Globe Awards	Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy	Smokey and the Bandit	Nominated
1979	Cannes Film Festival	Best Actress	Norma Rae	Won
	Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards	Best Actress		Won
	Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards	Best Actress		Won
	National Board of Review	Best Actress		Won
	New York Film Critics Circle Awards	Best Actress		Won
1980	Academy Awards	Best Actress		Won
	Golden Globe Awards	Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama		Won
	National Society of Film Critics Awards	Best Actress		Won
1982	Golden Globe Awards	Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama	Absence of Malice	Nominated
	People's Choice Awards	Favorite Motion Picture Actress		Won
1983	Golden Globe Awards	Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy	Kiss Me Goodbye	Nominated
1985	Academy Awards	Best Actress	Places in the Heart	Won
	Golden Globe Awards	Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama		Won
1986	Golden Globe Awards	Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy	Murphy's Romance	Nominated
	People's Choice Awards	Favorite Motion Picture Actress		Nominated
1990	Golden Globe Awards	Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama	Steel Magnolias	Nominated
1995	BAFTA Awards	Best Actress in a Supporting Role	Forrest Gump	Nominated
	Kids' Choice Awards	Favorite Movie Actress		Nominated
	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie	A Woman of Independent Means	Nominated
	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role	Forrest Gump	Nominated
1996	Golden Globe Awards	Best Actress - Miniseries or Television Film	A Woman of Independent Means	Nominated
	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie		Nominated
2000	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie	A Cooler Climate	Nominated
2001	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series	ER	Won
	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series		Nominated
		Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie	David Copperfield	Nominated
2003	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series	ER	Nominated
2007	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series	Brothers & Sisters	Won
	Satellite Awards	Best Actress - Television Series Drama		Nominated
2008	Golden Globe Awards	Best Actress - Television Series Drama		Nominated
	People's Choice Awards	Favorite Female Television Star		Nominated
	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series		Nominated
	Satellite Awards	Best Actress - Television Series Drama		Nominated
	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series		Nominated
2009	Golden Globe Awards	Best Actress - Television Series Drama		Nominated
	People's Choice Awards	Favorite Female Television Star		Nominated
	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series		Nominated
	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series		Won
2012	Boston Society of Film Critics Awards	Best Supporting Actress	Lincoln	Won
	Chicago Film Critics Association Awards	Best Supporting Actress		Nominated
	Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Awards	Best Supporting Actress		Won
	New York Film Critics Circle Awards	Best Supporting Actress		Won
	Southeastern Film Critics Association Awards	Best Supporting Actress		Nominated
2013	Academy Awards	Best Supporting Actress		Nominated
	BAFTA Awards	Best Actress in a Supporting Role		Nominated
	Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards	Best Supporting Actress		Nominated
	Golden Globe Awards	Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture		Nominated
	National Society of Film Critics Awards	Best Supporting Actress		Nominated
	Online Film Critics Society Awards	Best Supporting Actress		Nominated
	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture		Nominated
	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role		Nominated

Charities

Sally Field supports the following charitable causes: Gay Rights, Osteoporosis.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]