Here’s a look at the life of former child star Shirley Temple Black.
Personal:
Birth date: April 23, 1928
Death date: February 10, 2014
Birth place: Santa Monica, California
Birth name: Shirley Jane Temple
Father: George Temple, a banker
Mother: Gertrude Temple
Marriages: Charles A. Black (December 1950 – August 4, 2005, his death); John Agar (September 19, 1945 – December 5, 1949, divorced)
Children: with Charles A. Black: Lori Alden and Charles Alden Jr.; with John Agar: Linda Susan (adopted by Black)
Education: Westlake School for Girls, 1945
Other Facts:
She began performing at age 3.
Most remembered for singing “On the Good Ship Lollipop” in the 1934 movie “Bright Eyes” and tap dancing on the staircase with Bill “Bojangles” Robinson in 1935 in “The Little Colonel.”
One Primetime Emmy nomination for “The Shirley Temple Show.”
Received a special miniature Oscarstatuette in 1935 in recognition of the films she made as a child star in 1934.
Is the number one box-office draw in America and Britain from 1935-1938.
Her corkscrew curls were popular with little girls from the 1930s through the 1970s.
A “Shirley Temple” cocktail is non-alcoholic – ginger ale with a dash of grenadine syrup and a maraschino cherry.
Timeline:
1932 – First film of notice, part of the “Baby Burlesks” short-subject series, “War Babies.”
1934 – Her first feature-length film “Carolina” is released. She also stars as Marky in “Little Miss Marker” and begins a seven-year contract with Twentieth Century Fox.
February 27, 1935 – Temple receives a miniature Oscar at the Academy Awards.
1940 – Her contract with Twentieth Century-Fox is terminated a year before it’s up, by mutual agreement with her parents.
November 25, 1949 – Her last film is released, “A Kiss for Corliss.”
1950 – Retires from films to become a full-time homemaker.
1958-1961 – Her hour-long, weekly television show, “Shirley Temple’s Storybook,” airs for 38 episodes.
November 1967 – Running as a Republican, Temple Black loses the special election for the 11th California Congressional District seat.
1969-1974 – Is a member of the US delegation to the United Nations.
November 1972 – Successfully battles breast cancer with a mastectomy to her left breast.
1974-1976 – Is the US Ambassador to the Republic of Ghana
July 1, 1976-January 21, 1977 – The first female US Chief of Protocol.
1983 – Co-chair and charter member of the American Academy of Diplomacy, the training school for ambassadors.
1988 – “Child Star: An Autobiography” is published.
1989-1992 – Is the US Ambassador to Czechoslovakia
1998 – Receives Kennedy Center Honors.
February 10, 2014 – Dies of natural causes at the age of 85.
