Shirley Anne Field Dies: ‘Alfie’ & ‘Santa Barbara’ Actress Was 87
British actress Shirley Anne Field, known for her roles in 1960s classic movies Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and Alfie, and her stint on the NBC soap Santa Barbara, passed away on Sunday, December 10. Her family confirmed her death was due to “natural causes” in a statement to the BBC. She was 87.
“It is with great sadness that we are sharing the news that Shirley Anne Field passed away peacefully on Sunday… surrounded by her family and friends,” a spokesperson announced. “Shirley Anne will be greatly missed and remembered for her unbreakable spirit and her amazing legacy spanning more than five decades on stage and screen.”
Field, born on June 27, 1936, in the Forest Gate district of East London, initially embarked on a career as a model in the early 1950s. By the mid-1950s, she transitioned to acting and appeared in films such as Loser Takes All and It’s A Wonderful World, both released in 1956.
In 1960, she played various roles, including a memorable part in the unsettling horror film Peeping Tom, which later gained cult status. However, her breakthrough performance as Tina Lapford opposite Laurence Olivier in The Entertainer, also released in 1960, brought her widespread recognition.
In that same year, she portrayed the romantic interest of Albert Finney‘s rebellious Arthur Seaton in another iconic kitchen sink drama, Karel Reisz’s Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. Additionally, she took on the role of a stripper in Basil Dearden’s Man in the Moon. Notable appearances also include Alfie, Once More, With Feeling!, And the Same to You, Beat Girl, and Jungle Street Girls.
Field was married to race car driver Charles Crichton-Stuart from 1967 until their divorce in the late 1970s, and they shared a daughter named Nicola. Her autobiography, titled A Time for Love, was published in 1991.
