Biography

Shirley Temple

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Born
April 23, 1928 · Santa Monica, California, USA
Died
February 10, 2014 · Woodside, California, USA (pneumonia and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease)
Birth name
Shirley Jane Temple
Height
5′ 2″ (1.57 m)

Shirley Temple was easily the most popular and famous child star of all time. She got her start in the movies at the age of three and soon progressed to super stardom. Shirley could do it all: act, sing and dance and all at the age of five! Fans loved her as she was bright, bouncy and cheerful in her films and they ultimately bought millions of dollars' worth of products that had her likeness on them. Dolls, phonograph records, mugs, hats, dresses, whatever it was, if it had her picture on there they bought it. Shirley was box-office champion for the consecutive years 1935-36-37-38, beating out such great grown-up stars as Clark Gable, Bing Crosby, Robert Taylor, Gary Cooper and Joan Crawford. By 1939, her popularity declined. Although she starred in some very good movies like Since You Went Away (1944) and the The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947), her career was nearing its end. Later, she served as an ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia. It was once guessed that she had more than 50 golden curls on her head.
- IMDb mini biography by: Ken Severson

At age six she became the first recipient of the juvenile Academy Award. To this day she is the youngest person ever to receive an Academy Award. After receiving her award from actor/writer Irvin S. Cobb, she politely thanked him, then turned to her mother and asked, "Mommy, can I go home now?" Many years later, in an appearance on the 1984 Oscar show, Temple explained what had happened. At the 1935 Oscar banquet, her special award was one of the last to be presented that evening. She had been forced to sit through the entire awards ceremony, watching all the other awards being handed out. By the time she got her award, at about 10:00 p.m., she was exhausted and ready to go home to bed.
Her mother, Gertrude Temple, did her hair in pin curls for each movie. Every hairstyle had exactly 56 curls.
Shirley Jones and Shirley MacLaine were both named after her.
In 1989 was appointed United States Ambassador to Czechoslovakia.
Bill Robinson (aka "Bojangles Robinson") was her idol when she was a child, and she got to work with him on four pictures.

I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph.
Any star can be devoured by human adoration, sparkle by sparkle.
One famous movie executive who shall remain nameless, exposed himself to me in his office. "Mr X", I said, "I thought you were a producer, not an exhibitor".
Shirley Temple doesn't hurt Shirley Temple Black. Shirley Temple helps Shirley Temple Black. She is thought of as a friend--which I am!
I'm not too proud of the movies I made as a grownup except for That Hagen Girl (1947), which nobody remembers but which gave me a chance to act.

Fort Apache (1948) - $110,000
Since You Went Away (1944) - $2,200 (per week)
Stand Up and Cheer! (1934) - $75 /week
Pardon My Pups (1934) - $1,000 /wk+$35,000 bonus at the end of each film to be held in trust until contract is over+$250/wk for her mother
Kid in Hollywood (1933) - $150 /week