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 3½.
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.”
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 – The year of her first feature-length film, “Carolina”, first starring role, as Marky in “Little Miss Marker”, and beginning of seven-year contract with Twentieth Century-Fox. She also receives a miniature Oscar at the annual Academy Awards ceremony.
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
1995 – Receives Kennedy Center Honor for Lifetime Achievement in the performing arts.
2006 – Receives a Screen Actors’ Guild Lifetime Achievement Award.
February 10, 2014 – Dies of natural causes at the age of 85.