British actor Shirley Field, whose long career included memorable performances in such 1960s classic Angry Young Men genre dramas as Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and Alfie died Sunday December 10, of natural causes. She was 87.
Her family announced the passing in a statement to the BBC. “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. 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.”
In 1960 she had several roles including in the unnerving horror film Peeping Tom that would later go on to become a cult favorite before her breakthrough performance as Tina Lapford opposite Laurence Olivier.
For her first Hollywood film, Field passed up John Schlesinger’s A Kind of Loving to star opposite Steve McQueen and Robert Wagner in the World War 2 drama The War Lover. It was a decision she had later regretted. “I finally had a chance to go to Hollywood and become a worldwide name. It was the stuff dreams are made of, but I didn’t get to enjoy it like I should have,” she said. “When I arrived, I was so panicked and tired and the sun was just too yellow and the orange juice too orange. It was very stressful, and I had a headache all the time.”
Field’s outstanding body of work also included The Damned (1962) with Oliver Reed, Lunch Hour (1963) with Robert Stephens, Kings of the Sun (1963) with Yul Brynner, Doctor in Clover, My Beautiful Laundrette (1985), The Rachel Papers (1989) and Hear My Song (1991).
Leave a Comment