Shirley Anne Field

Acting

Shirley Anne Field

Born 1938-06-27 · Forest Gate, Essex, England, UK

Shirley Anne Field (born Shirley Broomfield; June 27, 1938 - December 10, 2023) was an English actress who performed on stage, film and television since 1955, prominent during the British New Wave. After a course at the Lucie Clayton School and Model Agency, she became a photographic model for pin-up magazines like Reveille and Titbits. She was subsequently spotted by Bill Watts, who ran a theatrical agency and obtained for her roles in late 1950s British films, usually uncredited. Her first appearance in a film was as an extra in Simon and Laura (1955). She had small parts in All for Mary (1955), Lost (1956), Yield to the Night (1956) (directed by J. Lee Thompson), It's Never Too Late (1956), It's a Wonderful World (1956), The Weapon (1956), Loser Takes All (1956), The Silken Affair (1956), Dry Rot (1956), The Good Companions (1957) (again for Thompson), Seven Thunders (1957), and The Flesh Is Weak (1957). She was in episodes of The New Adventures of Martin Kane (1957) and International Detective. Field's first sizeable film role was in Horrors of the Black Museum (1959). She had minor parts in Once More, with Feeling! (1960) and And the Same to You (1960). Field had a larger role in the controversial Peeping Tom (1960). She appeared on stage in The Lily White Boys with Albert Finney. In 1960, Field's breakthrough came when she was chosen by Tony Richardson to play the role of model Tina Lapford in The Entertainer (1960), starring Laurence Olivier, distributed by Bryanston Films. Field had a supporting role in Beat Girl (1960), then appeared in probably her best known role as Doreen, the would-be girlfriend of rebellious Arthur Seaton (played by Albert Finney), in the New Wave film Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960). Field starred alongside Kenneth More in Man in the Moon (1960). With those three big film starring roles in 1960, she became one of the very few actors ever to have their name above the titles in all the major cinemas around Leicester Square simultaneously. Although offered a role in A Kind of Loving (1962), Field turned it down to play the female lead in a Hollywood financed film, The War Lover (1962), with Steve McQueen. In the UK, she had the lead in Lunch Hour (1962), which was one of her favorite films. For Hammer films, Field starred in The Damned (1963), directed by Joseph Losey. She went to Hollywood to play the female lead in an epic directed by J. Lee Thompson, Kings of the Sun (1963). Thompson had her under personal contract at this stage. Field went to Italy to appear in The Wedding March (1966), then back in England made Doctor in Clover (1966) and Alfie (1966). She had a supporting role in Hell Is Empty (1967) and later starred in With Love in Mind (1970) and A Touch of the Other (1970), then made House of the Living Dead (1974). By the late 1970s Field was more commonly seen on TV, in shows such as Centre Play, Shoestring, Buccaneer, Never the Twain and a long run on Santa Barbara as well as TV movies like Two by Forsyth. She had roles in films like My Beautiful Laundrette (1985), Shag (1989), Getting It Right (1989), The Rachel Papers (1989), Hear My Song (1991), UFO (1993), Taking Liberty (1993), Loving Deadly (1994), and At Risk (1994). Description above from the Wikipedia article Shirley Anne Field, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Acting credits

Peeping Tom poster
7.5

Loner Mark Lewis works at a film studio during the day and, at night, takes racy photographs of women. Also he's making a documentary on fear, which involves recording the reactions of victims as he murders them. He befriends Helen, the daughter of the family living in the apartment below his, and he tells her vaguely about the movie he is making.

Peeping Tom

1960

My Beautiful Laundrette poster
6.7

A young Pakistani Briton manages a rundown laundrette with his lover while dealing with tension in his family, the local Pakistani community, and a persistent mob of skinheads.

My Beautiful Laundrette

1985

The Rachel Papers poster
5.1

Poised to attend Oxford University, 19-year-old Charles Highway decides it's high time to have a romantic encounter with an older woman. With the help of a computer program and several eccentric relatives, Highway sets his sights on seducing Rachel Noyce, a stunning American in her 20s. However, Highway has his work cut out for him. Noyce has a boyfriend, DeForest, and is not exactly receptive to Highway's advances — at first, anyway.

The Rachel Papers

1989

Alfie poster
6.5

A young man leads a promiscuous lifestyle until several life reversals make him rethink his purposes and goals in life.

Alfie

1966

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning poster
7.0

A 22-year-old factory worker lets loose on the weekends: drinking, brawling, and dating two women, one of whom is older and married.

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning

1960

The Damned poster
6.3

An American tourist and a troubled young woman are chased by her gang leader brother to a top secret British government facility that conducts experiments on children.

The Damned

1962

The War Lover poster
6.0

Buzz Rickson is a dare-devil World War II bomber pilot with a death wish. Failing at everything not involving flying, Rickson lives for the most dangerous missions. His crew lives with this aspect of his personality only because they know he always brings them back alive.

The War Lover

1962

The Kid poster
6.5

Based on the real life story of Kevin Lewis, the film follows his childhood of abuse, his descent into a life of crime and the way he put his life together again afterwards.

The Kid

2010

Hear My Song poster
5.9

Singer Josef Locke fled to Ireland 25 years ago to escape the clutches of the tax man and police Chief Jim Abbott. What he also left behind was the love of his life Cathleen Doyle. Now, Micky O’Neill is desperate to save both his ailing Liverpool nightclub ‘Heartly’s’ and his failing relationship with the beautiful Nancy, Cathleen’s daughter. The solution? Book the infamous Josef Locke.

Hear My Song

1991

Kings of the Sun poster
6.0

In order to flee from powerful enemies, young Mayan king Balam leads his people north across the Gulf of Mexico to the coast of what will become the United States. They build a home in the new land but come into conflict with a tribe of Native Americans led by their chief, Black Eagle, while both Balam and Black Eagle fall in love the beautiful Mayan princess Ixchel.

Kings of the Sun

1963

Getting It Right poster
6.8

Gavin is 31 years old and still lives with his parents. He is awfully shy but before he knows it there are three women interested in him. Lady Minerva Munday has a casual way of life and lives in a basement, Joan is an over-sexed millionairess, married to a Greek architect. But Gavin prefers the ugly assistant in the barbershop.

Getting It Right

1989

U.F.O. The Movie poster
6.0

The legendary Roy 'Chubby' Brown stars in his very first feature length movie. Chubby is captured by a gang of feminist aliens from the 25th century and beamed up to their spaceship during his live show in Blackpool. Put on trial for crimes against woman, he is soon found guilty and sentenced to the ultimate penalty. Is this the end of the planet's favourite son? Will he escape? Or will Chubby be terminated? Co-starring super model Sara Stockbridge and Roger Lloyd Pack, 'Trig' from Only Fools and Horses. U.F.O. is the bawdiest, most outrageous celluloid experience of the year or indeed any year.

U.F.O. The Movie

1993

Shag poster
6.2

Summer of 1963. Carson is getting married to her boyfriend so her friends Melaina, Pudge and Luanne take her to Myrtle Beach for one last irresponsible weekend.

Shag

1989

Beat Girl poster
5.9

When her architect father brings home a much younger new wife, rebellious and resentful teen Jenny goes to extreme lengths to sabotage their relationship.

Beat Girl

1960

Horrors of the Black Museum poster
5.9

A writer of murder mysteries finds himself caught up in a string of murders in London.

Horrors of the Black Museum

1959

Upstairs and Downstairs poster
5.8

On marrying the boss's daughter, Richard takes his father-in-law's advice to hire a live-in domestic. He soon finds good help is hard to come by. Run-ins follow with dipsomaniacs, bank robbers, a Welsh lass who takes one look at London and runs, and an Italian charmer who turns the place into a bawdy house. Then when Ingrid arrives from Sweden things actually start to get complicated.

Upstairs and Downstairs

1959

The Entertainer poster
6.2

Archie Rice, an old-time British vaudeville performer sinking into final defeat, schemes to stay in show business.

The Entertainer

1960

Risking It poster
NR

"There's always a sale to be made if you're willing to work hard enough." Richard is a top salesman and is content. His wife, however, has had enough.

Risking It

1977

Lost poster
6.8

U.S. Embassy employee Lee Cochrane and his wife, Sue, receive a shock when they discover that their 18-month-old son, Simon, has disappeared in London. He was last seen with their nanny, and the couple seemingly have no leads that might help police Detective Craig in his investigation. The media sensationalizes the incident, causing an unnecessary distraction as the couple prepares to confront the culprit face-to-face.

Lost

1956

Doctor in Clover poster
5.8

Doctor in Clover is another 'Doctor' movie, but this time Leslie Phillips is the main doctor in the story, looking for love and romance from the hospital nurses, much to the annoyance of the main Administrator (James Robertson Justice) who wants his doctors to be 100% focussed on the job. Numerous antics follow, with Phillips getting Justice fixed up with the new prim-and-proper Matron (Joan Sims) and his attempted failures to lure the hospital's beauty, the physiotherapist.

Doctor in Clover

1966

Man in the Moon poster
6.7

William is an unsuccessful guinea pig for a medical group interested in researching the common cold. He is soon fired and offered a job by the nearby National Atomic Research Center where they figure anyone who could fail at being a guinea pig is just what they need. They con William into thinking he will continue his guinea pig career by testing out some equipment for them before they send a group of astronauts to the moon.

Man in the Moon

1960

Once More, with Feeling! poster
6.4

The wife of brilliant, but boisterous and ill-tempered conductor of the London Symphony puts up with his childishness, but the last straw is drawn when he begins an affair with a young pianist.

Once More, with Feeling!

1960

The Weapon poster
6.1

A boy accidentally shoots a friend with a gun he found in the rubble of a destroyed building. The gun turns out to be a clue in a ten-year-old murder case.

The Weapon

1956

Simon and Laura poster
5.9

A couple of bickering, married performers agree to star in a "Mr. and Mrs." TV show.

Simon and Laura

1955