A model and (briefly) repertory actress, London-born Shirley Anne Field was featured as the first of a steady stream of sweet ingenues in 1955's Simon and Laura. Thereafter, Field became one of busiest young actresses in the British film industry, with meaty roles in such films as Upstairs and Downstairs (1959), Peeping Tom (1960) and These Are the Damned (1960). Her screen image was demure to the point of dullness, a quality cleverly exploited in the 1960 film Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, wherein with deceptive guilessness she traps Albert Finney into a loveless marriage. By the time Field appeared in Alfie (1966), her acting skills had sharpened but her popularity was on the wane. After several years on stage and in TV, Field returned to films as a character actress in 1977; her last film to date was 1991's Hear My Song. An occasional visitor to American shores, Shirley Anne Field appeared in 1984 on the NBC daytime drama Santa Barbara, playing the role of Pamela Capwell until other commitments obliged her to relinquish the part to Marj Dusay.
by Hal Erickson
biography
