Temple, Shirley

later Shirley Temple Black

Shirley Temple.

(credit: Brown Brothers)

(born April 23, 1928, Santa Monica, Calif., U.S.) U.S. child actress. She was selected from her dancing class for a screen test and made her debut at age four. She won notice in Stand Up and Cheer (1934) and was featured in Little Miss Marker (1934) and Bright Eyes (1934), in which she sang “On the Good Ship Lollipop.” A precocious performer known for her dimples and golden curls, she became the country's most popular female star and Hollywood's top box office attraction in the Great Depression era. She received a special Academy Award in 1934. Her later films include The Little Colonel (1935), Wee Willie Winkie (1937), and The Little Princess (1939). As an adult she served as a U.S. delegate to the UN General Assembly (1969–70) and as U.S. ambassador to Ghana (1974–76) and Czechoslovakia (1989–92).

Temple, Shirley (1928– ) movie actress, diplomatic official; born in Santa Monica, Calif. Precociously talented, she was "discovered" at a dancing school and at age three and a half was appearing in a series of short films. In 1934 she made nine movies, leaping to stardom with Little Miss Marker, and winning a special Academy Award for her "outstanding contributions to screen entertainment" that year. For the next six years she was not only one of the most popular and best paid of all movie stars, she inspired a virtual cult of adulation and name-brand products. As she moved into her teens, her appeal and career faltered and she effectively retired from the movies in 1950; attempts to revive her career on television in 1958 and in 1960 also failed. Married to business executive Charles Black in 1950, as Shirley Temple Black she unsuccessfully ran as a Republican for U.S. representative and senator from California. She was appointed a U.S. representative to the United Nations (1969), ambassador to Ghana (1974–75), White House chief of protocol (1976–77), and ambassador to Czechoslovakia (1989–92).

Temple, Shirley

(1928–) blonde, curly-headed darling of America. [Am. Cinema: Browne, 100–111]

See : Curlyheadedness