SHIRLEY TEMPLE
Shirley Temple
- © Twentieth Century Fox
- (Shirley Temple in Bright Eyes, 1934)
Biography
BIO
Shirley Temple was born in 1928, in Santa Monica, California. Her father was a banker. Her mother loved dancing and directed her daughter toward performing. She began dance classes in Hollywood in 1931, at the age of 3. Her film career began in 1932 when a casting director visited her class.
Temple worked at Universal Pictures beginning in 1932, at the age of four. She signed with Fox Film in late 1933 and her breakthrough block-buster, Bright Eyes (1934), saved Fox from certain bankruptcy. It was also in Bright Eyes that Temple first performed one of her biggest hits, On the Good Ship Lollipop.
Her popularity earned her both public adulation and the approval of her peers. Even at the age of five, the hallmark of her acting was her professionalism: she always had her lines memorized and dance steps prepared when shooting began.
Temple's ability as a dancer (especially a tap dancer) is well known and celebrated. She was able to handle complex tap choreography by the age of five. She was teamed with famed dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson in five films.
Temple received a special Academy Award in 1935 in recognition of her outstanding contribution to screen entertainment. She is still the youngest performer ever to receive an Oscar.
In 1940, Temple left Fox. She juggled classes at high school with films for various other studios, including MGM and Paramount.
At the age of 17, Temple was married to soldier-turned-actor John Agar in 1945. They had one daughter, born in 1948. After more than 40 feature films, she retired from motion pictures in 1949 because she wanted to devote herself to raising a family and was unhappy with changes in the film industry. Temple filed for divorce from Agar later that year.
In 1950, while vacationing in Hawaii, Shirley met and fell in love with California businessman Charles Black and married him that same year. Together, they had two children. They remained married until his death in 2005. One daughter, Lori Black, was a bass player for the proto-grunge group Melvins.
In the late 1950’s, she made a brief return to show business with a television series. In later years, she made occasional appearances on television talk shows.
Shirley Temple Black became involved in Republican Party politics, unsuccessfully entering a Congressional race in 1967 on a platform that supported the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War.
Turning to a career in diplomacy, she was appointed United States Delegate to the United Nations (1969), United States Ambassador to Ghana (1974–76), United States Ambassador to Czechoslovakia (1989–92) and United States Chief of Protocol (1976).
Temple died of a heart attack in Woodside, California, in 2014, at the age of 85.
Additional biographical information is available at: 
