Shirley Anne Field was born Shirley Broomfield in Forrest Gate, Essex (what is now the London Borough of Newham) on June 27 1936. She was six years old when she was placed in the National Children's Home at Edgworth, near Bolton, Lancashire. She subsequently spent most of her childhood in a series of children's home. When she was 15 years old she returned to her family in London. Before her film career, Shirley Anne Field was a pinup girl who appeared in such publications as Reveille and Titbits.
Shirley Anne Field was noticed by director Val Guest and made her film debut in a small role in the movie Simon and Laura in 1955. In the late Fifties she appeared in such films as All for Mary (1955), Lost (1956), 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), The Flesh is Weak (1957), Seven Thunders (1957), Horrors of the Black Museum (1959), Upstairs and Downstairs (1959), and Jungle Street (1960). Nineteen sixty would prove to a breakthrough year for Shirley Anne Field. She appeared in the classic Peeping Tom (1960), an actress who discovers the bodies of one of the victims of Mark Lewis (Carl Boehm). In The Entertainer (1960) she played Tina Lapford, a beauty queen who has an affair with protagonist Archie Rice (Lord Laurence Olivier). She received her biggest role to date in the classic Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960), in which she received second billing. She played Doreen, a beautiful, but modest woman who becomes involved with the protagonist Arthur Seaton (Arthur Finley). She also received second billing in Man in the Moon (1960), playing a stripper with whom protagonist William Blood (Kenneth More) becomes involved. Shirley Anne Field made her television debut in The New Adventures of Martin Kane in 1957 and during the late Fifties she also appeared in the TV series International Detective.
In the Sixties Shirley Anne Field continued to appear in high profile roles in the Sixties. She appeared in her first Hollywood film, The War Lover (1962), opposite Steve McQueen. She also appeared in the films The Damned (1962) and Alfie (1966). She appeared in the movies Kings of the Sun (1963), Lunch Hour (1963), Marcia nuziale (1966), Doctor in Clover (1966), Hell is Empty (1967), With Love in Mind (1970), and A Touch of the Other (1970). She appeared in the television show Five More.
In the Seventies Shirley Anne Field began appearing more often on television. During the decade she was a regular on the British TV series Buccaneer. She also guest starred on the TV shows Centre Play and Shoestring. She appeared in the movie House of the Living Dead (1974). In the Eighties she appeared in the TV movie Two By Forsyth (1984). She had a recurring role for a time on the American daytime soap opera Santa Barbara. She also appeared in the TV series Never the Twain. She appeared in the movies My Beautiful Laundrette (1985), Shag (1988), Getting It Right (1989), and The Rachel Papers (1989).
In the Nineties Shirley Anne Field was a regular on the TV series Madson. She appeared in the mini-series Lady Chatterley. She guest starred on the shows El C.I.D.; Murder, She Wrote; Rumble; Bramwell; Barbara; Dalziel and Pascoe; and The Bill. She appeared in the movies Hear My Song (1991), U.F.O. (1993), Loving Deadly (1994), At Risk (1994), and Christie Malry's Own Double-Entry (2000). In the Naughts Shirley Anne Field was a regular on the TV series Where the Heart Is. She guest starred on the shows Walking the Dead, Monarch of the Glen, Last of the Summer Wine, and Doctors. She appeared in the movie The Kid (2010). In the Teens she appeared in the movie The Power of Three (2011). Her final appearance on screen was in the short "Beautiful Relics" (2014).
Shirley Anne Field was a remarkable actress. In her earliest roles she was often little more than eye candy, but she swiftly proved herself both talented and versatile. In her breakout year 1960 alone she played a variety of roles, from the neurotic actress Diane in Peeping Tom to the wholesome Doreen in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. In the Hammer Horror The Damned (1963), she played Joan, the sister of the vicious leader of a motorcycle gang. In Alfie she played a nurse who seduced by the title character (Michael Caine), who also happens to be her patient. Over the years Shirley Anne Field played a wide variety of roles and played all of them well.
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