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Sally Margaret Field Mahoney (born November 6, 1946) is an American actress who is a two-time Academy Award and Golden Globe winner; she is also a two-time Emmy Award winner who became a household name at age 20 as Sister Bertrille in the 1960s sitcom, The Flying Nun. She is currently starring as Nora Walker on the ABC drama, Brothers & Sisters, as a grieving matriarch who helps out in the family business.

Early life

Field was born in Pasadena, California. Her parents, Richard Dryden Field and Margaret Field (a Southern-born actress), divorced in 1950. Her mother subsequently remarried, to former stuntman Jock Mahoney.

She attended Birmingham High School in Van Nuys, California; among her fellow classmates were famed financier Michael Milken, fellow actress Cindy Williams (of Laverne and Shirley fame), and the sons of the legendary Steve Allen.

Career

Early television roles

Field got her start on television, starring as the boy-struck surfer girl in the mid-1960s series Gidget. She then went on to star in her best known television role, as Sister Bertrille in The Flying Nun. Field also appeared in The Girl with Something Extra.

She had several guest appearances, including a recurring role on the western comedy Alias Smith and Jones starring Pete Duel (whom she worked with on Gidget) and Ben Murphy.

Sybil

Having played mostly comic characters on television, Field had a difficult time being cast in dramatic roles. She studied with famed acting teacher Lee Strasberg. Soon after, Field landed the title role in the 1976 TV film Sybil.

Field's dramatic portrayal of Sybil, a young woman afflicted with multiple personality syndrome in the TV film not only garnered her an Emmy Award in 1977, but also enabled her to break through the typecasting she had experienced from television roles.

Film roles

Field had a number of critical and commercial successes in movies, particularly in the 1980s.

In 1979, she starred as a union organizer in Norma Rae, and won the Academy Award for Best Actress. In 1981, Field played a prostitute opposite Tommy Lee Jones in the South-set comedy Back Roads, which received middling reviews and grossed $11 million at the box office.

She won another Oscar in 1985 for her starring role in Places in the Heart; her gushing acceptance speech is well remembered for its earnestness. In it, Field stated "I haven't had an orthodox career, and I've wanted more than anything to have your respect. The first time I didn't feel it, but this time I feel it, and I can't deny the fact that you like me, right now, you like me!" [1]. The line ending in "...I can't deny the fact that you like me, right now, you like me!" is often misremembered as simply "You like me, you really like me!" which has subsequently been the subject of many parodies. (Field parodied the line herself in a commercial.)

She has had supporting roles in other movies, including Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) in which she played the wife of Robin Williams and the love interest of Pierce Brosnan followed by Forrest Gump (1994).

Recent roles

On television, Field has a recurring role on ER as Dr. Abby Lockhart's bipolar mother, for which she won an Emmy in 2001. She also starred in the very short-lived 2002 series The Court.

Field has also ventured into the realm of directing. Her first directorial stint was for the television film, The Christmas Tree (1996). She also directed the feature film Beautiful (2000), as well as an episode of the TV mini-series, From the Earth to the Moon (1998).

Field was a late addition to the ABC drama Brothers & Sisters, which debuted in September 2006. In the show's pilot, the role of matriarch Nora Walker had been played by noted actress Betty Buckley. However, the producers of the show decided to take the character of Nora in another direction, and Field was cast in the role.

Private life

Field dated Burt Reynolds for many years. She was first married to Steven Craig from 1968 to 1975. In 1984, she married Alan Greisman; the couple divorced in 1993.

Field has two sons from her first marriage; son Peter Craig is a novelist. Her third son, Sam Greisman, is from her marriage to Alan Greisman.

Health

In 2005, Field was diagnosed with osteoporosis. Her diagnosis led her to create the "Rally With Sally For Bone Health" campaign with support from Roche and GlaxoSmithKline that co-promote Boniva, a treatment for osteoporosis.

Trivia

• While starring on The Flying Nun, Sally tried her hand at singing, releasing an album in 1968 and cracking the Billboard Hot 100 with one single, "Felicidad", in 1967.
• Field appeared on the cover of the March 1986 issue of Playboy magazine. She was the "Interview" subject in that month's issue. (She did not appear as a pictorial subject inside the magazine).
• She has a "Feynman Number" of two, since her brother, theoretical physicist Rick Field, worked with Richard Feynman in the late 1970s.
• Field has testified with Jane Fonda, Jessica Lange and Sissy Spacek before a Congressional committee about farm problems.

Filmography

• The Way West (1967)
• Stay Hungry (1976)
• Smokey and the Bandit (1977)
• Heroes (1977)
• The End (1978)
• Hooper (1978)
• Norma Rae (1979)
• Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (1979)
• Smokey and the Bandit II (1980)
• Back Roads (1981)
• Absence of Malice (1981)
• Kiss Me Goodbye (1982)
• Places in the Heart (1984)
• Murphy's Romance (1985)
• Surrender (1987)
• Punchline (1988)
• Steel Magnolias (1989)
• Not Without My Daughter (1991)
• Soapdish (1991)
• Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey (1993) (voice)
• Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)
• A Century of Cinema (1994) (documentary)
• Forrest Gump (1994)
• Eye for an Eye (1996)
• Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco (1996) (voice)
• Where the Heart Is (2000)
• Say It Isn't So (2001)
• Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde (2003)
• Going Through Splat: The Life and Work of Stewart Stern (2005) (documentary)
• Two Weeks (2006)

Upcoming:

• The Little Mermaid III (2007) (voice) (direct-to-DVD)

Television Work

• Gidget (1965-1966)
• The Flying Nun (1967-1970)
• Maybe I'll Come Home in the Spring (1971)
• Hitched (1971)
• Marriage: Year One (1971)
• Home for the Holidays (1972)
• The Girl with Something Extra (1973-1974)
• Bridger (1976)
• Sybil (1976)
• From the Earth to the Moon (1998) (miniseries)
• A Cooler Climate (1999)
• The Court (2002) (canceled after 6 episodes)
• Conviction (2005)

References

Footnotes

External links

• Rally With Sally For Bone Health Web site
• Sally Field, Boniva, and Media Ethics

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