Shirley Temple Dies at Age 85
February 11, 2014
Shirley Temple, who died yesterday at the age of 85, was quite simply the most popular child actor in history. She began her motion picture career in 1932 at the age of 3 after she was signed in a talent search at the dance school she attended. By the end of 1934, she was internationally famous. Shirley Temple was a dimpled ray of sunshine during the darkest days of the Great Depression. She could act, sing, and dance. She was a charming, bouncy presence in the two dozen or so movies she made during the 1930′s, including Stand Up and Cheer (1934), her first hit; Little Miss Marker (1934), The Little Colonel (1935), The Littlest Rebel (1935), and Dimples (1936).
Temple was the movie box office champion for four consecutive years, from 1935 through 1938. She received a special juvenile Academy Award in 1935 for her contribution to the film industry, which included keeping Twentieth Century Fox out of bankruptcy. Her image and voice were everywhere in a merchandising bonanza that included dolls, phonograph records, mugs, hats, dresses, and dishes. If it had Shirley’s happy face on it, her fans bought it.
By the end of the 1930′s, Temple’s popularity had declined as public tastes changed and she grew from adorable moppet to awkward adolescent. After making a few movies as a teenager in the 1940′s, Temple retired at the age of 22. She married movie actor John Agar in 1945; they divorced in 1949. In 1950, she married San Francisco businessman Charles A. Black and became known as Shirley Temple Black. From 1958 into the early 1960′s, she made scattered television appearances.
Beginning in 1969, Temple devoted much of her time to public service. In 1969, she was appointed a United States representative to the United Nations General Assembly. In 1974, she was named ambassador to Ghana. In 1976 and 1977, she served as chief of protocol for the U.S. Department of State. President George H. W. Bush appointed her ambassador to Czechoslovakia in 1989. She also served on the boards of a number of businesses and corporations.
Fellow child star Roddy McDowall said of her: “She’s indelible in the history of America because she appeared at a time of great social need, and people took her to their hearts.” President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who invited the child star to the White House in 1938, credited her with helping to raise American morale during the hardships of the Great Depression.
Additional World Book articles:
- Bill Robinson
- Motion picture 1934 (a Back in Time article)
- Motion picture 1935 (a Back in Time article)