Shirley Temple OCCUPATION: Film Actress (1932-1950); TV actress/entertainer (1958–1965); Public servant and Diplomat (1969–1992); BIRTH DATE: April 23, 1928 (Age: 85) PLACE OF BIRTH: Santa Monica, California EDUCATION: Tutors; Westlake School for Girls ResidenceWoodside, California AKA: Shirley Jane Temple; Shirley Temple Black Nickname: Little Miss Miracle ZODIAC SIGN: Taurus Party Affiliation: Republican Nationality: United States of America Details SHIRLEY TEMPLE Shirley Jane Temple was born on April 23, 1928, in Santa Monica, California.
She is the daughter of Gertrude Amelia Temple (nee Krieger), a homemaker and George Francis Temple, a bank employee.
The family was of English, German and Dutch ancestry. She had two brothers, George Francis, Jr. and John Stanley. Mrs. Temple once had show business aspirations and frequently played the phonograph and attended dance recitals while she was pregnant. Eight months after she was born, young Shirley was regularly swaying to music in her crib and Mrs. Temple encouraged her infant daughter's singing, dancing and acting talents. In September 1931 she enrolled her in Meglin's Dance School in Los Angeles, California.
She was discovered a few months later, when executives from a low-budget film company came by the dance studio. When Shirley was 3 years old, her father signed a contract on her behalf with Educational Pictures. Shirley began appearing in Baby Burlesques, short films which spoofed popular movies by remaking them with children. In her earliest films, Shirley performed remarkable impressions of such stars as Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich. While the cameras rolled, Shirley Temple's mother would be on the sidelines, encouraging her to "Sparkle! To underwrite production costs at Educational Pictures, Shirley and her child co-stars modeled for breakfast cereals and other products. She was lent to Tower Productions for a small role in her first feature film Red-Haired Alibi in 1932 and in 1933, to Universal, Paramount and Warner Brothers for various bit parts. Her family was protective and her father became her agent and financial adviser. The exposure from Baby Burlesques led her to a contract with the Fox Film Corporation. At age 5, in April 1934, she attained fame with a featured role in Stand Up and Cheer, starring Warner Baxter.
This became Shirley's breakthrough film. Her charm was evident to Fox heads and she was promoted well before the film's release. Within months, she became the symbol of wholesome American family entertainment. Her salary was raised to $1,250 a week, and her mother's to $150 as coach and hairdresser. Shirley starred in several more films the same year, including Little Miss Marker and Baby Take A Bow. On December 28, 1934, Bright Eyes was released. It was the first feature film crafted specifically for Shirley's talents and the first in which her name appeared above the title.
Her signature song "On the Good Ship Lollipop" was introduced in the film and sold 500,000 sheet music copies. The film demonstrated Shirley's ability to portray a multi-dimensional character and established a formula for her future roles as a lovable, parentless waif whose charm and sweetness mellow gruff older men. The next year, she broke racial barriers (at the time) by tap-dancing with the original Mr. Bojangles, Bill Robinson, in The Little Colonel. The young actress, singer and dancer with the 56 bouncing golden corkscrew curls and infectious optimism proved an overnight sensation and a top earner for the studio.
In February 1935, Shirley Temple became the first child star to be honored with a special Academy Award and miniature Juvenile Oscar for "Outstanding Personality of 1934" She added her foot and hand prints to the forecourt at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in February that year. Shirley Temple was the most famous child actor in history. From 1936-38, Shirley earned more than any other Hollywood star, starring in films that offered an hour and a half of optimism at the height of the Depression.
To make her seem even more precocious, her mother subtracted a year from Shirley's age and until she was 13 Shirley thought she had been born in 1929. By 1940, Shirley Temple had 43 films under her belt. United States President at the time Franklin Delano Roosevelt called Shirley Temple "Little Miss Miracle" for raising the public's morale during times of economic hardship and was noted for saying that, "as long as our country has Shirley Temple, we will be all right. " When off the set, Shirley had private tutors and also attended the Westlake School for Girls from 1940-45.
When Shirley began to mature, her popularity with audiences waned. As an adolescent, she appeared in The Blue Bird (1940) which performed poorly at the box office. At 19, she co-starred in The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer. Although the film received critical praise, audiences struggled to accept that their "Little Miss Miracle" was growing up. In 1943, 15-year-old Shirley met John George Agar, an Army Air Corps sergeant. On September 19, 1945, when Shirley was 17 years old, they were married before 500 guests at Wilshire Methodist Church. On January 30, 1948, Shirley gave birth to their daughter, Linda Susan.
Agar became a professional actor and the couple made two films together: Fort Apache (1948) and Adventure in Baltimore (1949). Following her 1948 and 1949 films, Shirley found it increasingly difficult to land major acting roles. During the 1950s and early 1960s, she made scattered appearances on the small screen but her career as a popular film star had ended at an earlier age than most entertainers' had begun. Shirley's marriage became troubled and she divorced Agar on December 5, 1949. She received custody of their daughter and the restoration of her maiden name.
The divorce was finalized on December 5, 1950. In January 1950, Shirley had met Charles Alden Black, a World War 2 United States Navy intelligence officer who was awarded the Silver Star and reputedly one of the richest young men in California. Temple and Black were married on December 16, 1950. The family relocated to Washington, D. C. when Black was recalled to the Navy at the outbreak of the Korean War. Shirley gave birth to their son, Charles Alden Black, Jr. , in Washington, D. C. on April 28, 1952. Following the war's end and Black's discharge from the Navy, the family returned to California in May 1953.
Black managed television station KABC-TV in Los Angeles, and Shirley became a homemaker. Their daughter Lori was born on April 9, 1954. In September 1954, Black became director of business operations for the Stanford Research Institute and the family moved to Atherton, California. The couple remained married for 54 years until his death on August 4, 2005. In her film career spanning 1931-1961 she starred in 14 short films, 43 feature films and over 25 storybook movies. As Shirley Temple Black's entertainment work petered out, she refocused her efforts on a career in public service.
She briefly returned to acting in 1958, as host and sometimes performer of Shirley Temple's Storybook, an anthology series that ran on NBC and ABC from 1959-62. She began her second career in public life at about the same time, becoming involved in the fight against multiple sclerosis after the disease ravaged her brother George, Jr. She co-founded the International Federation of Multiple Sclerosis Societies. In 1967 at the age of 39 she ran for United States Congress but lost. From 1969 to 1970 she served as U. S. ambassador to the United Nations.