The Entertainer and Alfie actress Shirley Anne Field dies aged 87
11 December 2023, 17:58
The Entertainer and Alfie actress Shirley Anne Field has died aged 87.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
The stage and screen star started out as a model in the 1950s but was brought to prominence in the 1960s following her role in The Entertainer opposite the late Laurence Olivier.
Her career spanned five decades with her going on to appear in films including Alfie and Saturday Night And Sunday Morning.
A statement et from her family read: "It is with great sadness that we are sharing the news that Shirley Anne Field passed away peacefully on Sunday 10 December 2023, surrounded by her family and friends.
"Shirley Anne will be greatly missed and remembered for her unbreakable spirit and her amazing legacy spanning more than five decades on stage and screen."
Read more: Vladimir Putin's main political rival Alexei Navalny 'disappears from prison'
Field was born in Forest Gate, Newham, on June 27 1936.
She lost ties with her family for decades after her home was bombed in the Second World War.
As a teenager, Field participated in local beauty contests and was crowned Miss London.
But she said she had never been chasing fame - just hoping her mother would see photos and "find me and want me".
The actress later reunited with her mother - who disappeared in southern America - and her extended family.
"I finally met my mother again when I was 38 and discovered my whole other family - three lovely American half-sisters. My mother lived to 98. She had a lot of stamina," she told the Daily Mail in 2015.
In more recent years, Field appeared in Doctors, Last Of The Summer Wine and The Bill.
