American actress Sally Field has had a great career run, spanning over five decades in the entertainment industry. The 75-years-old started in the ’60s, and through self-development and determination, Sally forged her path to the limelight. She has continued to appear on in films and on television, and today she is one of the most celebrated faces in Hollywood.
Sally Field has numerous accolades to her name, being the recipient of various awards, that include a couple of Oscars and Golden Globes, Cannes Film Festival Awards and three Primetime Emmys. The Flying Nun star is also an established theatre actress and was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Sally Field’s shot at the limelight
The Stay Hungry star hit the limelight in 1965 when she landed the starring role on the sitcom Gidget. Sadly, the show wasn’t an instant success and was canceled after just one season in 1966. Despite the sitcom’s failure, ABC was positive about Field’s talent, and she was given another acting gig to cast as Sister Bertrille in The Flying Nun.
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Interestingly, while the show was more successful than Gidget, running from 1967 to 1970, Sally’s experience — and memories — were far more bitter due to the harsh treatment she received from the show’s directors and the fact that it really typecast her and, for a time, prevented her from being cast in different roles.
All through the mid-’70s, the Murphy’s Romance star featured in films like Maybe I’ll Come Home in the Spring, and shows such as Alias Smith and Jones, Night Gallery, and The Girl With Something Extra. However, The Girl With Something Extra was canceled after a season, and this prompted Field to make the decision to learn and work under famed acting coach Lee Strasberg.
The knowledge she gained under Strasberg’s tutelage shaped her and helped her land the title role in the 1976 TV film Sybil, where Field played the character of a woman with a multiple-personality disorder. Her extraordinary acting earned her an Emmy Award, and the role also changed her from the stereotyped girl who could only handle sitcom roles to a fully-established actress.
In 1977, the now 75-year-old collaborated with her lover at the time, Burt Reynolds, on Smokey and the Bandit, which topped the box office chart as one of the highest-grossed films of the year. She reprised her role in the 1980 sequel, Smokey and the Bandit II. In 1979, Field won an Academy Award for her extraordinary performance in the movie Norma Rae.
Sally Field’s bagged a second Academy Award
To the surprise of her fans, Fields went unconventional with her acting style in the early ’80s as she played the role of a prostitute in Back Roads alongside Tommy Lee Jones. The Night Gallery star was widely criticized for her acting in films like Absence of Malice and Kiss Me Goodbye. Nonetheless, in 1984 the actress bagged her second Oscar award, this time for her role in Places in the Heart.
She switched to supporting roles in some of her ’90s films, such as Mrs. Doubtfire and Forrest Gump, while also playing more key roles in movies like Soapdish, Not Without My Daughter, and Eye for an Eye. Toward the end of the decade, Field took up directing films like The Christmas Tree.
Being a versatile actress, she featured in leading roles in films such as Where the Heart Is and Legally Blonde 2: Red, White, and Blonde in the early 2000s, after which she went back to TV to play a recurring role as a woman suffering from bipolar disorder in ER. The latter earned her an Emmy Award for her acting.
In the last 10 years, Sally Field has returned to mainstream movies as Aunt May in the 2012 movie The Amazing Spider-Man, reprising the role in the 2014 sequel. A year after, the Guilds Award winner booked a role in Hello, My Name is Doris before getting accolades for her Broadway performance in The Glass Menagerie.
Sally Field’s net worth
According to Celebrity Net Worth, Sally Field has an estimated net worth of $55 million. In a 2012 interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the actress revealed that she only made $500 per episode from her breakout role in the 1965 series Gidget.