Sally Field

Sally Field was married to Steven Craig from 1968 to 1975, and they had two sons, novelist Peter Craig and actor and director Eli Craig. She married film producer Alan Greisman in 1984, and they had a son, Samuel Greisman, before divorcing in 1994. Field also had a relationship with Burt Reynolds from 1976 to 1982, and they continued to date intermittently before separating permanently.

Field wrote in her memoir In Pieces that she experienced severe depression in her late teens. She was diagnosed with osteoporosis in 2005 and subsequently supported efforts to encourage bone-density screening and awareness of the condition.

Field began acting professionally after attending a summer workshop at Columbia Studios. She was chosen from more than 75 actresses to play the title role in the television sitcom Gidget, which premiered in 1965. Although the series was canceled after one season, strong ratings during summer reruns helped establish her as a television performer.

She next starred as Sister Bertrille in The Flying Nun, which ran from 1967 to 1970. The popular comedy brought Field widespread recognition but reinforced an image she felt limited her opportunities for serious roles. Her first feature film was The Way West in 1967, and she later appeared in television films and series including Maybe I'll Come Home in the Spring, Alias Smith and Jones and The Girl with Something Extra.

Field studied at the Actors Studio with acting teacher Lee Strasberg, who helped her move beyond her sitcom persona. Her performance in the 1976 television film Sybil, as a woman with dissociative identity disorder, earned her the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie and marked a major transition into dramatic acting.

Field gained film stardom in Smokey and the Bandit in 1977, appearing with Burt Reynolds, Jackie Gleason and Jerry Reed. She later reunited with Reynolds in The End, Hooper and Smokey and the Bandit II.

Her performance as a textile mill worker who becomes a union organizer in Norma Rae earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1979 and the Best Female Performance prize at the Cannes Film Festival. She followed the role with films such as Absence of Malice, Kiss Me Goodbye and Murphy's Romance.

Field won her second Academy Award for Places in the Heart in 1984, playing a widow trying to preserve her farm during the Great Depression. Her acceptance speech, particularly the line "You like me, you really like me," became a widely recognized pop-culture quotation. She went on to play notable roles in Steel Magnolias, Mrs. Doubtfire and Forrest Gump, in which she portrayed the mother of Tom Hanks's character.

Field returned to television with a recurring role on ER, playing Maggie Lockhart, the mother of Dr. Abby Lockhart. Her performance earned her the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series in 2001. She won another Emmy in 2007 for playing Nora Walker, the matriarch of the family drama Brothers & Sisters, which ran from 2006 to 2011.

She also worked as a producer and director. Her directing credits include the television film The Christmas Tree, an episode of From the Earth to the Moon and the feature film Beautiful. Her later screen roles included Aunt May in The Amazing Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Mary Todd Lincoln in Steven Spielberg's Lincoln, Hello, My Name Is Doris, the miniseries Maniac, Dispatches from Elsewhere and 80 for Brady.

Field made her Broadway debut in Edward Albee's The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? in 2002. She returned to Broadway in 2017 as Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie, earning a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Play. She published the memoir In Pieces in 2018.

Field received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2014 and was named a Kennedy Center honoree in 2019. She received the National Medal of Arts in 2014 and the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2023.

She has advocated for women's rights and abortion rights, served on the board of Vital Voices Global Partnership and supported LGBT rights. In 2019, she was arrested with other demonstrators during Jane Fonda's Fire Drill Fridays climate protest in Washington, D.C.

Field's 2007 Emmy acceptance speech, in which she criticized war and said that mothers would not allow wars if they ruled the world, was partially censored during the live broadcast. Her memoir also discussed her difficult childhood and the abuse she experienced from her stepfather, Jock Mahoney.