Child Star: The Shirley Temple Story

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66%

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User Ratings: 692

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Movie Info

Between 1934 and 1940, Shirley Temple was the biggest little star in Hollywood; the curly-headed tyke began doing song-and-dance numbers in one-reel comedies at the age of four, at six years she stole the show in the musical Stand Up and Cheer, and at ten she was the number one box-office attraction in America, and had even taken home a special Oscar. Based on Temple's 1988 autobiography, Child Star: The Shirley Temple Story stars Ashley Rose Orr as the pint-size superstar in a story that concentrates on the sunny side of her rise to fame and soft-peddles allegations that her parents (here played by Connie Britton and Colin Friels) mismanaged the fortune she earned during her years as a pre-teen celebrity. Child Star: The Shirley Temple Story was produced by the mother-and-daughter team of Paula Hart and Melissa Joan Hart; the Harts have their own perspective on life as a youthful celebrity, thanks to Melissa's career as the star of the TV series Clarissa Explains It All and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, while Paula's younger daughter (and Melissa's younger sister) Emily Anne Hart appears in the film as the teenaged Shirley Temple.

Rating:

NR
Genre:

Drama, Kids & Family, Television
Directed By:

Nadia Tass
Written By:

Shirley Temple, Joe Wiesenfeld
In Theaters:

May 13, 2001 wide
On Disc/Streaming:

Dec 18, 2001
Runtime:

88 minutes
Studio:

Walt Disney Television

Cast

Ashley Rose Orr
as Shirley Temple

Connie Britton
as Gertrude

Colin Friels
as George

Emily Hart
as Teenage Shirley

Steven Vidler
as Zanuck

William Gluth
as Lionel Barrymore

John Diedrich

Hinton Battle
as Bill `Bojangles' Robinson

Ken Radley

Jerome Ehlers
as John Ford

John O'May

View All

Critic Reviews for Child Star: The Shirley Temple Story

All Critics (1) | Top Critics (1) | Rotten (1)

Completely edgeless, ABC's Child Star: The Shirley Temple Story steers clear of investigative bio techniques and focuses instead on pie-eyed wonder, cutesy outfits and aren't-I-sweet numbers.

October 19, 2018 | Full Review…

Michael Speier
Variety
Top Critic